Yesterday we reported that All Points Bulletin (APB) planned the deployment of update 1.4.2 today with the introduction of the PureSkill feature. However, what we got today was the announcement that APB is in fact coming to an end. We all know about the financial hardships the company has suffered in recent months, but despite efforts to keep the game running, APB's Community Officer Ben 'APBMonkey' Bateman announced that the game will be coming to a close.

APB has been a fantastic journey, but unfortunately that journey has come to a premature end. Today we are sad to announce that despite everyone's best efforts to keep the service running; APB is coming to a close. It's been a pleasure working on APB and with all its players. Together we were building an absolutely amazing game, and for that, we thank you. You guys are awesome!

From all of the Realtime World staff we thank you for your continued support.

The servers are still up, so join the party and say goodbye!

- Ben 'APBMonkey' Bateman (Community Officer)

For the time being, players can still login and say goodbye to their friends, but the battle between the Enforcers and Criminals it appears is about to fire its last shot. It appears that the forums have already been taken down and a click to view them redirects you to Bateman's post. The official announcement contains a number of quotes from the dev team saying goodbye and thanking fans.

It has certainly been a displacing year for MMOGs as the APB community joins the long line of displaced members already suffering the lose of their games this year. As always our best go out to the developers affected by the earlier layoffs and any coming ones.

Update: The announcement that APB would be shutting down came rather abruptly, but it seems that the end will be just as abrupt as Eurogamer has learned that the game will cease its services within the next 24 hours.