Realtime Worlds Ltd. was a British

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

based in

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

, Scotland. The company was founded by David Jones in 2002. After developing ''

Crackdown Crackdown may refer to * ''Crackdown'' (web series) * ''Crackdown'' (video game series) ** ''Crackdown'' (video game) ** ''Crackdown 2 ''Crackdown 2'' is an open world action-adventure video game developed by Ruffian Games and published by ...

'' (2007) and '' APB: All Points Bulletin'' (2009), Realtime Worlds filed for

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...

in August 2010.

Foundation

Realtime Worlds was founded in early 2002 by David Jones, who was previously a founder of

DMA Design Rockstar North Limited (formerly DMA Design Limited) is a British video game development company and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Edinburgh. The company was founded as DMA Design in Dundee in 1987 by David Jones, soon hiring former cla ...

and the creator of the game series ''

Grand Theft Auto ''Grand Theft Auto'' (''GTA'') is a series of action-adventure games created by David Jones (video game developer), David Jones and Mike Dailly (game designer), Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan Hous ...

'' and ''

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''. Much of the initial workforce was previously employed at

Rage Software Rage Games (formerly Rage Software) was a British video game developer. Formed in Liverpool in 1992, its video games were marked by an emphasis on graphical effects with arcade gameplay. Rage's first title '' Striker'' sold more than one mi ...

, as Rage Games (Scotland). During this period the core team who would go on to form Realtime Worlds developed

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

game '' Mobile Forces'' for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. Upon the demise of Rage Software, Dave Jones bought out Rage Games (Scotland) to form Realtime Worlds.

Development

On 11 December 2006,

New Enterprise Associates New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is an American-based venture capital firm. NEA focuses investment stages ranging from seed stage through growth stage across an array of industry sectors. With ~$25 billion in committed capital, NEA is one of the w ...

announced an investment of 30 million US dollars into Realtime Worlds. Their first release under the name Realtime Worlds was the critically acclaimed 2007 action-adventure third-person sandbox game ''

'', an

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

exclusive title. In 2010, they released a

massively multiplayer online game A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players, often hundreds or thousands, on the same server. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent world, persistent open world, alt ...

for Microsoft Windows, titled '' APB (All Points Bulletin)'', which had been in development for five years, and was hoped to generate upwards of "hundreds of millions of pounds". In 2007, at

Develop Develop or DEVELOP may refer to: * ''Develop'' (magazine), a trade publication for the video game industry * ''Develop'' (Apple magazine), a technical magazine formerly published by Apple Computer * Develop (chess), moving a piece from its origina ...

magazine's Industry Excellence Awards, the company was nominated in a record-breaking seven categories, and took home the awards for ''Innovation'' and ''New UK/European Studio''. Company chairman Ian Hetherington was also crowned ''Development Legend''. At the 2007

British Academy of Film and Television Arts British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Video Game Awards ceremony, ''Crackdown'' was nominated in five categories and won two, for ''Action and Adventure'' and ''Use of Audio''. In 2008, ''Crackdown'' was honored as ''Best Debut'' by the GDC's Game Developers Choice awards. On 14 February 2008, it was announced that Realtime Worlds had secured US$50M in funding from a consortium led by

venture capitalists Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which hav ...

Maverick Capital and

and joined by the

WPP Group WPP plc is a British multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company headquartered in London, England. It was the world's largest advertising company, as of 2019. WPP plc owns many compan ...

, a

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-based

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firm. The funds are expected to be used towards "continued expansion". On 27 April 2009, Gary Dale left his COO position at

Take-Two Interactive Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City and founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993. The company owns two major publishing labels, Rockstar Games and 2K, which operate internal g ...

to become CEO of the company. Dave Jones stepped down as CEO of the company and took the title of creative director. On 1 May 2010, Realtime Worlds annual accounts revealed a further US$21M investment was made in the company in January 2010. This brings the total investment in Realtime Worlds since 2006 to US$101M. On 29 June 2010, after five years of development, with lengthy delays, '' APB'' was released to the general public. As of 15 July 2010, ''APB'' has a metacritic score of 58/100. On 7 July 2010, Realtime Worlds announced that it was to restructure its work force to focus more on providing "total support" for ''APB''. On 16 September 2010, Realtime Worlds announced that it will be shutting down ''APBs servers for good.

Administration and closure

On 17 August 2010, six weeks after the release of '' APB'', Realtime Worlds entered

with

Begbies Traynor Begbies Traynor () (until 1997 known as Traynor & Partners) is a firm specialising in corporate restructuring. They were formed in 1989, expanded through mergers and organic growth and were floated in 2004. The company employs over 700 people and ...

, announcing major layoffs to their Dundee division, and mostly closing their Colorado office. References state that 50 employees would be held to maintain the game ''APB All Points Bulletin'', though it was unclear to what extent. Joint administration was conducted by Paul Dounis and Ken Pattullo of the Begbies Traynor Group. Dounis stated: "Our intention is to continue trading the company while we attempt to find a

going concern A going concern is a business that is assumed will meet its financial obligations when they become due. It functions without the threat of liquidation for the foreseeable future, which is usually regarded as at least the next 12 months or the spec ...

buyer which will safeguard the future of the business." The following day (18 August), Begbies Traynor announced that Realtime Worlds had attracted interest from potential buyers "from both sides of the Atlantic." On 19 August, Begbies Traynor confirmed that a buyer needed to be found for the company as a going concern by the end of September. If that deadline was not achieved,

liquidation Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and many other countries. The assets and property of the company are redistrib ...

was the most likely option for Realtime Worlds. On 16 September 2010, the remainder of the Realtime Worlds staff was laid off with a temporary

skeleton crew A skeleton crew is the minimum number of personnel needed to operate and maintain an item such as a business, organization, or ship at its most simple operating requirements. Skeleton crews are often utilized during an emergency and are meant to ...

left in place to close the offices in Dundee and Colorado. On 12 November 2010, bidding on thousands of Realtime Worlds lots ended, with industrial auctioneer Sweeney Kincaid managing the sales and collections. The lots included monitors, computers and games consoles.

Games

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

Video game companies established in 2002 Companies based in Dundee Defunct companies of Scotland Companies that have entered administration in the United Kingdom Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game development companies 2002 establishments in Scotland Video game companies disestablished in 2010 2010 disestablishments in Scotland