GTA Creator Believes WoW isn't Untouchable

via IGN


Dave Jones, the architect behind Grand Theft Auto (not the crime but the game) and current CEO of Realtime Worlds, spoke with developmag.com where he said APB could succeed in the face of WoW's MMO stranglehold. Realtime Worlds recently acquired $50 million in funding and Jones has very ambitious plans for the companies first MMO.

While others have called it dangerous to compete with Blizzard's World of Warcraft, which holds an impressive ten million user install base, Jones asserted WoW focuses too much on grinding against mindless AI and PvE aspects of game play. APB aims to highlight player vs. player interactions.

"What I wanted to do with APB was use the players against the players, but in a unique way. It's not just PvP where you're trying to kill each other; it's trying to think of ways to pit people against each other, but create more of a mission structure around it. That's exciting because that way you can play a mission over and over again, but depending on who you are playing against it will be different, it means personality becomes involved, and introduces real human element into missions," said Jones.

In addition, Jones believes there is still a lot of room for growth in the young MMO market as he cites half of WoW's success depends on the Chinese market. This divides the other 5 million WoW subscibers amongst the US and European markets, which he equivocates to a standard good selling console game.

Jones recently announced that APB is on target for a 2009 release. APB is a urban style MMO that comes from the studio that brought us action shooter Crackdown on the Xbox 360, look for more information on APB as it develops.