New APB Owner Opening Scottish Studio

Irvine, CA-based Reloaded Productions, the GamersFirst subsidiary that took over development of All Points Bulletin, plans to open a new studio in Edinburgh, Scotland and hire at least 22 employees. The company is receiving support from local business group Scottish Development International, as well as £125,000 (around $201,000) in "Regional Selective Assistance" from economic development agency Scottish Enterprise to set up the development studio. Reloaded intends to hire at least 22 workers for game engineering, 3D art, and game design positions. It has appointed Michael Boniface, previously IT director at Realtime Worlds, as general manager at the studio to lead development and oversee recruitment. The new location is not far from the former headquarters of Realtime Worlds, which originally developed and operated APB before lower-than-expected subscriber numbers forced the firm to shutter and sell the MMO third-person shooter to GamersFirst last November. GamersFirst's internal Reloaded studio has since taken over development for APB -- now titled APB: Reloaded -- and converted it into a free-to-play game that will re-launch some time this year. Over 250,000 people have registered interest for its re-launch and open beta. "After visiting Scotland, meeting some extraordinary game development professionals and also seeing the Scottish Government’s enthusiastic support for creative and technical ventures, we decided to invest in a Scottish team focused on the core game engineering and key creative design tasks," says Reloaded CEO Bjorn Book-Larsson. Book-Larsson continues, "Our hope is to expand the Scottish presence and increase the size of the team over time as we add more creative game projects as part of our global MMO development efforts."