Over the past few days, rumors have popped up on various websites that the recently revived APB Reloaded will be receiving a retail release. This rumor spread when a post detailing a $29.99 boxed retail copy of the game appeared on the Facebook page of IGS CEO and founder Paul G Lombardi.
Since then, the post has been taken down, and GamersFirst has issued a statement on the rumor:
“Given that APB Reloaded has been the most talked about online game this summer and its unprecedented growth in open beta players, it has become very attractive to large institutions in the game distribution business. In just 6 weeks of open beta the game has attracted over 600,000 users and over a quarter million fans on the game’s fan page on Facebook.”
“As a result of this success, we’ve been approached by retail partners to launch the title on retail shelves. Although we are evaluating our options, we have not picked a potential partner as of now. GamersFirst is also committed to the Free2Play model and any retail strategy will be guided by those principles.”
GamersFirst has a history of being very open about their goals and methodology when dealing with APB. While the statement neither confirms or denies that there will be a retail version, it’s reassuring to see that they intend to commit to the free-to-play model. If there is a retail edition, I’m sure it will be interesting to see how it’s handled.
