EA Partners signs up Realtime Worlds

EA’s third-party publishing division EA Partners has signed up the publishing rights to Realtime World’s APB.

The Scottish-made game, first unveiled at GDC 2008, is a cops and robbers MMO that invites players to team up in a vast, online city and either take the role of criminal or law enforcement.

GTA creator Dave Jones is the creative director of the project. Realtime Worlds first game, Crackdown, won numerous Develop Awards and a BAFTA.

The deal between the publisher and the studio was announced at EA’s E3 press conference today.

EA Partners already has a number of deals in place with Harmonix, Crytek, Double Fine and Epic Games.

The game will release early next year for PC.