Realtime Worlds founder and creative director David Jones has chimed in on the recent bout of disappointing reviews for crime-centric MMO All Points Bulletin, pinning the blame largely on “misconceptions” and “huge expectations.”

Speaking to UK-based outlet Eurogamer, Jones admitted that the title is “not for absolutely everybody,” further noting that its focus on tactical combat may be a turn-off for the trigger-happy Call of Duty crowd. Ultimately, though, Jones feels APB was being touted as a MMO rendition of Grand Theft Auto, a hasty perception that gave way to overblown expectations.

Some people had too high expectations. The game years ago was initially tagged as GTA MMO, which we’d never said. Obviously people put two and two together – our history and the fact it was online – and said, ‘Oh it’s going to be like a GTA MMO’. I think that’s set huge expectations. That’s not what we were building, so I was expecting that.

No matter how you shake it, saying expectations were too high is an odd approach to damage control. It comes across as a way of sidestepping criticism. Clearly other factors were at play.

Realtime’s Dave Jones defends APB [Eurogamer]

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