APB beta begins next week - Report

Realtime Worlds has been slowly ticking off the days until the beta-testing period for APB gets under way. Having solicited beta sign-up applications in August, the Dundee, Scotland-based studio said in September that the testing period for its large-scale online shooter would begin in a matter of weeks. Now, those indeterminate "weeks" have apparently been whittled down to just days.

GI.biz reports today that Realtime Worlds CEO Gary Dale confirmed during the Tech Media Invest conference at the Emirates Stadium in London that APB's beta test will officially begin sometime next week. No mention was made of how large a pool of beta testers would be initially invited to participate, though the studio has previously stated that it will grow the tester base in the lead-up to APB's launch in March 2010. Realtime Worlds had not responded to requests for comment as of press time.

Though the game was announced in 2005, APB's development largely operated under the radar, up until creative director and Grand Theft Auto creator Dave Jones offered the first substantive showing during the 2008 Game Developers Conference. As part of the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo, Electronic Arts announced that it would be publishing the third-person PC shooter through its EA Partners program.

Though it accommodates up to 100 players in an open-world environment, APB won't be a massively multiplayer online game in the traditional sense. It also will apparently not follow the norms of an MMOG when it comes to payment models. Realtime Worlds' Web site explicitly notes that the game "won't be the traditional monthly subscription model."

For more information, check out GameSpot's previous coverage of APB.