Three-million subscribers later, APB is realizing the benefits of the free to play model. Originally, this murder simulator, which can best be summed up as Grand Theft Auto: The MMO, opened to a dismal start with little interest, fewer paying subscribers, and a huge burden of hackers and spammers. The game closed, the company went poof, and now APB is back under new management. What’s next for this new APB? Gamasutra has the story.
Free to play isn’t a magic bullet, but it does seem to work. The idea is really rather simple; create a market, feed the market. Hard to create a market if your goods are behind a paywall. In other news, cash shop sparkleponies to support the entire world economy by 2016.