It’s been a loaded three months for APB Reloaded, what with the game getting a new owner in March 2018 and seeking to revamp and strengthen itself since. Needless to say, Little Orbit CEO Matthew Scott had plenty to talk about.
In his lengthy quarterly update blog post, he touches on several major projects happening for the game. One of the first topics is the merging of the Russian server Nekrova to the Citadel server — a move that has proven tricky as a result of Russian publisher Innova reportedly not handing over all of the purchase records when they ended support for APB Reloaded two years ago. As a result, there will be a few items that will be missing from player inventories.
Next was word on the ongoing process of the engine upgrade. According to Scott, some code snarl-ups have delayed things, but most of that work is completed; all that remains is some more code tightening for the console versions and migration of content. Players should see screenshots, benchmarks, and public test schedules soon. Speaking of console versions, progress is being made on that front to clear out bugs and provide a more stable build of the game to PS4 and Xbox One players.
Finally, Scott offered some insight into the decision to tease and develop Riot mode instead of focus exclusively on the matters above:
“The simple answer is that we need to do all of these things, all at once. My job is to line them up as best as I can. In my opinion just launching the engine upgrade isn’t enough. Launching a new game mode isn’t enough. We have been working hard since May last year to do something big for the community, and this first big step needs to contain something for everyone.”
He also seemed to indicate that Riot mode is effectively battle royale, but also pointed out that its implementation is different from others.
“We do have a collapsing map, but it closes off block by block based on player interaction. We do have guns that you can pick up, but we also allow you to come into the mode with your favorite loadout and earn the points to unlock those items for use during the match. In the end, some players will feel this is BR, and some wont.
The key point is that we didn’t just copy what other games are doing.”
