APB hits retail in March

The hotly-tipped APB by Scottish developer Realtime Worlds will arrive at retail in March, MCV can reveal.

MCV understands that EA Partners is distributing and marketing the PC and Xbox 360 game, which has been branded by some commentators as the natural successor to GTA.

However, insiders have scotched industry chatter that EA is on the cusp of acquiring the studio, whose co-founder Dave Jones is credited with creating GTA and Lemmings.

APB, which stands for All Points Bulletin is an online, open world crime romp. Realtime Worlds has previously enjoyed huge success with Crackdown, published by Microsoft in 2007.