The dust has finally settled on APB's Reloaded reboot-up-the-arse, and it's racked up a none-too-shabby 3 million registered players in the eight days after its release on Steam, according to Gamespot . The original, ridiculously troubled release apparently notched up a mere 130,000 players, but we heard rumours that this number was actually far lower.
It's also currently sitting at number 15 in the Steam charts, making it the second most popular free-to-play game after the evergreen Team Fortress 2. 3 million isn't such a bad number, too - it's obviously dwarfed by the likes of Skyrim , but it's almost up there with Battlefield 3's 5 million copies. It's also just over a quarter of the uber-popular League of Legends' player base , too.
In addition, a retail version of APB Reloaded has launched in the US. Containing $50 worth of virtual goods, the boxed edition is priced at $29.99. To celebrate, publishers GamersFirst have introduced a "Fight Club" mode into the game, but we can't talk about it because of, y'know, the first rule and all that.
GamersFirst have essentially republished APB with tighter vehicle controls and on a free-to-play model, which has obviously paid off for players who want to dip in and see what it's all about. We've found the core experience of APB to be much the same - its in-depth customisation and social networking systems are not to be overlooked, but the running and gunning remains flawed.
How many of Reloaded's 3 million will stick around remains to be seen - it could steadily decrease to a huddle of enthusiasts, or it could carry on gathering players. But the Reloaded team have certainly done enough to ensure it's not going to dramatically collapse like Realtime Worlds' previous incarnation of the game.
We're sure at least one of those 3 million players will be reading this - what do you reckon to the reboot?
