10 Ill-Fated Choices That Wrecked Video Games Instantly

Game director David Jones is best known for founding DMA Design (now known as Rockstar North) and creating Grand Theft Auto back in 1997 . Beating his former studio to the punch, Crackdown became more than just a ticket to the Halo 3 beta in 2007; it was a fan favourite that both spawned a franchise and proved the developers had a strong eye for open world design.

Their next game was hailed as one David Jones had wanted to make for over fifteen years: a massively multiplayer online role playing title featuring warring gang factions. A whopping one hundred million dollars was poured into development on the ambitious project. When the game finally arrived in 2010, reviewers certainly weren't kind to it and the player population failed to grow at a rate Jones and his team were hoping for. Forced to sell off the APB licence, Realtime Worlds bled out and filed for bankruptcy in August 2010 just a few months after the game launched.

David Jones wouldn't make another game again until 2019's Crackdown 3. What's so disappointing about APB's failure and the subsequent demise of Realtime Worlds was the potential they both had. With a wealth of expertise and good reception under their belt, All Points Bulletin could have expanded on the MMO formula to deliver a setting and gameplay formula that diverged from the typical fantasy contemporaries of its day. But by over-extending and not tuning the fine details, Realtime Worlds abruptly collapsed, leaving the APB license behind.