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Keep an eye out for All Points Bulletin's second death. They spend over $100 million dollars developing the world's most advanced character design system and forgot to build an actual game around it. The original developer had to shut the game down after the first month or so, but then someone else bought it for a fraction of the development costs and reworked it into a Free To Play game. By all accounts, the gameplay is still absolutely terrible. Should only be a matter of time before they shut it down again.

There are a few reasons why I think this MMO would make an awesome engine for this startup.

1. The character customization system includes the ability to design clothing and tattoos for the character. If you don't like the wardrobe included in the game, you can design your own.

2. There is an equally extensive toolset to modify your character's physical appearance.

3. The customization was a main selling point for this game. People were supposed to be able to sell the clothing they designed in game and even exchange the virtual currency for more play time. This emphasis on user creativity means that the average APB player is probably more likely to begin playing with the intent to create their own content.

4. The studio that now owns the game didn't have to eat a $100 million loss, so they don't have to get a huge amount of money if they sell the game again. This combined with the fact that it failed once, and might again would ensure that there wouldn't be any competitors.

P.S. Another possible solution would be to just license the engine to create your own game. This is a common practice in the game industry and is usually far cheaper than trying to purchase a complete game.




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