Realtime Worlds

Realtime Worlds was a Scottish video game development studio based in Dundee. It was founded in 2002 by David Jones, a prominent game designer who had previously worked on the original Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto games.

The studio focused primarily on large-scale open-world action games and ambitious online projects. Although its history was short-lived, Realtime Worlds made a significant mark on the Xbox 360 era, primarily thanks to the game Crackdown.

Crackdown

Crackdown was released in 2007 exclusively for the Xbox 360 and became Realtime Worlds’ most successful and best-known game. The player takes on the role of a genetically enhanced agent of the Agency, whose task is to restore order to the city of Pacific City, which is controlled by criminal organisations.

The game offers a vast open-world environment in which the player can move around with relative freedom. The agent gradually improves their skills in areas such as strength, agility, marksmanship, explosives and vehicle handling.

One of the defining features of Crackdown is vertical movement around the city. As the agent’s agility level increases, the character can jump ever higher and reach the rooftops of buildings and other hard-to-reach places.

The search for Agility Orbs, located mainly on the rooftops and elevated areas of Pacific City, has also become a well-known feature of the game. Collecting these orbs gradually improves the agent’s movement abilities.

Crackdown combined an open world with arcade-style action and the option for co-op play. The game’s success subsequently led to the creation of further instalments in the series, though these were developed by different studios.

APB: All Points Bulletin

Realtime Worlds’ second major project was APB: All Points Bulletin, an ambitious online action game set in the open-world city of San Paro.

APB pitted two groups of players against each other – Criminals and Enforcers. Criminals could engage in various illegal activities, whilst the Enforcers represented the force seeking to stop their activities.

Great emphasis was placed on online multiplayer and extensive customisation options for characters, vehicles and other elements. The project aimed to combine the principles of an urban action game with a persistently online environment inhabited by other players.

However, the development of APB was extremely costly, and following its release in 2010, the game failed to achieve the results the studio required.

The End of Realtime Worlds

Shortly after the release of APB, Realtime Worlds found itself in serious financial difficulties. In August 2010, the studio entered administration and a large proportion of its staff lost their jobs.

The original operation of APB was subsequently discontinued. The rights to the game were later acquired by K2 Network, and the title returned in a revised form as APB Reloaded under the leadership of a different development team.

Although Realtime Worlds existed for only a few years, it left a significant mark, particularly thanks to Crackdown, which became one of the defining action games of the early Xbox 360 era.

Realtime Worlds is today primarily associated with the titles Crackdown and APB: All Points Bulletin, and with David Jones, who played a part in the creation of several significant brands in British gaming history during his career.