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Dundee outfit Realtime Worlds has insisted that it won’t release All Points Bulletin on consoles unless it can use dedicated servers to sustain a reliable online experience.
In an interview with Develop, APB lead designer EJ Moreland said that in an era of online gaming, the industry must provide the right technology to service it.
”I get the impression that the likes of Activision and Infinity Ward are coming round to the idea that using dedicated servers is important,” he said, reiterating that the PC edition of APB will use high-end dedicated servers.
”I get why there was an outcry about the peer-to-peer hosting on Modern Warfare 2,” he added, “because it’s so unpredictable what the quality of the online experience is going to be. That can really impact your experience, and we don’t want that – we want people to have a good experience every single time.”
Realtime Worlds now awaits the release of APB after nearly five years of development. The group has already suggested it will eventually refit the title to both Xbox 360 and PS3 – but Moreland suggests that dedicated server support for the console editions is a necessity.
”When we talk to publishing partners for the Xbox Live and PS3 network versions of [APB], the one thing we won’t compromise on is a guarantee that APB will always offer a reliable and hosted service.
”So some philosophy changes may have to happen with the console publishers, and they’ll have to think about how they’ll work with us more and look at how to build a technical environment that’s suitable for what the game offers.”
