Dave Jones has been hired as an advisor for APB Reloaded, the reboot of the title that killed Jones' former employer Realtime Worlds. The studio folded last year after the expensive development of APB led to poor sales. GamersFirst is publishing the free-to-play remake of the game, set to release this year. Jones told Develop that he's excited for the chance to complete his vision for the game.
"This game was my passion back when I was developing it with Realtime Worlds,” said Jones. "After seeing what the team has done with the game thus far, I'm certain that APB Reloaded will become the title that truly breaks new ground for online game experiences, especially with transition to a free to play model."
At the time of Realtime's imminent closing, some employees had choice words for Jones and other management.
“Dave Jones and Ian Hetherington have pissed away millions, they are getting away with not paying over 200 employees for the work that they have done and have fiddled their way to being able to buy back Project:MyWorld for cheap,” said Luci Halliwell, wife of former APB developer Luke Halliwell.
“I was genuinely shocked when I played the release candidate – I couldn’t believe Dave J[ones] would be willing to release this,” said another anonymous Realtime employee. “I think a huge part of the blame lies with Dave J[ones], though I can’t emphasize enough how nice a man he is personally; ultimately APB has torpedoed the company, and it failed largely under his creative leadership. It has other issues (technical, for instance), but the design and the business plan are largely down to him and the board, and they are what have failed so irrevocably for the rest of us."
