Crackdown and APB developer, Realtime Worlds, is in trouble. Over the last couple of weeks layoffs have taken place and the Project: MyWorld team was kicked to the curb. The latest news that we are getting from the inside claims that things are down to the wire and if an infusion of cash doesn’t come through or an investor isn’t found, the company will be shut down.

From what we are hearing, a very small team has been charged with keeping APB going in hopes that they might be able to sell off the recently released title. The company has entered administration and the U.S. studio has been closed with those employees laid off. Of course, information continues to be sketchy, as a number of newly christened ex-employees seem to be offering different versions of what is happening.

From what some former employees are saying, the studio has suffered a number of setbacks; but it would appear that APB’s five-year development cycle and perhaps the plan to build a massive multiplayer type of game into what is best described as a sandbox environment (as well as attempting to break too much new ground, and bad reviews combined with poor sales) struck a death blow to the company when it was banking on the revenue generated by this title to be a cash cow for years to come.

A source that we spoke with admitted to us that the game was not as polished as it should have been, and that is why it received rather poor reviews overall.  “It just took too long to build and the problems and project direction led to a product that was not as good as it needed to be and perhaps even confusing to some reviewers. It did have a lot of great concepts and ideas in the game, but it is now clear that we needed more time to work on it before releasing it,” according to the source.

At least for the time being APB continues to be playable, but it is anyone’s guess how much longer that it will continue. Another source tells us that it is down to the wire, but they are optimistic that something could still happen to save the studio. Apparently, a series of enhancements, revisions and upgrades were planned for APB, but right now it is very unlikely that these will see the light of day unless the game is sold, or by some stroke of luck the studio gets the infusion of cash or investment that they are looking for to save the day.