APB to use Facebook as ‘major community tool’

In the firm’s latest mailout to fans, Realtime Worlds has revealed that its new MMO APB will use Facebook as a ‘major community tool’.

The game, which was unveiled at GDC, is a multiplayer game in the GTA mould, but offers players the chance to take on either the role of cops or robbers.

It’s not yet known how exactly Facebook will integrate with the game, but when revealed the game at GDC Realtime Worlds head Dave Jones said the game would be using social music site Last.fm for in-game audio content, proving that the studio is keen to embrace already popular and established online services when building its game – rather than build its own.

At the same time, community relations manager Chris Dye has revealed that the game is close to beta status:

"In the middle of September we moved into the final phase of internal alpha testing with regular play tests involving 100+ employees enjoying the various elements of APB currently available. The aims of this phase are to tidy up the current experiences whilst we prepare to move out of alpha, in the future phases we will begin the tentative process of allowing others into the game.

"Initially this will be a very core, select number of trusted friends of employees, but does mark the start of what can be considered the ‘Closed’ Beta stage of APB. "

The game is also getting a rebranding (in terms of logo only – it’s still called APB) and an official site, all managed by the studio itself after it bought back the publishing rights to the title earlier this year.