10 Video Games With MASSIVE Potential (That Still Failed)

7. APB: All Points Bulletin

While we’re on the topic of building blocks that sound like a slam dunk, 2010’s APB seemed like it would basically be Grand Theft Auto as an MMO. We now call that GTA Online and it’s a wild money machine, but a decade ago this felt like it was going to fill that niche gamers had been calling out for.

Instead of getting that popular experience ten years early though, this absolute jankfest just sent the studio that made it into administration, and the online servers didn’t even last the year.

The original developer, Realtime Worlds, promised an open world MMO where players would choose to side with either the Enforcers or Criminals faction in an ongoing conflict. You’d try to complete objectives while the opposing side would attempt to stop you. On top of that the game was made by David Jones, the creator of GTA. What gamers got, though, was a technical mess that represented incredible promise but no ability to execute on that. While it did have an incredibly detailed character creator, the driving and combat mechanics functioned as if they’d never been tested on the actual servers.

The game also had a strange embargo where journos weren’t able to post their reviews until a week after its launch which is what we in the business call “not a good sign”.