Relaunched APB's business model explained

New APB owner GamersFirst has shed more light on the payment model for its upcoming relaunch of the troubled MMO.

Players will need to have shelled out for 'premium' membership if they wish to use the full feature set of the game's feted character customisation.

"Instead of limiting what you can customise as a free player, you will be allowed to customise almost anything, but you will not be able to store (and share) complex customisations above a certain level unless you are a Premium player at the time of customisation," explained GamersFirst boss Bjorn Book-Larsson.

However, lapsed premium members may still access designs created when they were paying players. He also claimed the free features of the customisation tool would offer plenty of content.

"We presume that some incredibly talented artists will squeeze the living daylights out of the Basic complexity cap no matter what we set this at. In other words, whatever we set this cap at, we expect people to make some fantastic designs using every possible trick in the book, and then those who are really focused on their characters will clearly be very compelled to get Premium status."

APB: Reloaded is slated for release in the first half of next year. GamersFirst has claimed that, if all goes well, it might consider a European office based out of Scotland.