APB to run adverts over voice chat
Pay an extra fee to disable them.
Realtime Worlds' online crime game APB will run advertisements over its voice chat service, with users having the option to pay an additional fee to disable them.
Players will hear a short audio ad no more frequently than once every three hours, according to Realtime's community team, and only when first entering a new district, so gameplay is undisturbed.
Alternatively, you'll be able to pay extra for a service called VOIP Premium, which will remove the ads for 30, 90 or 180 days. The pricing of VOIP Premium has not been revealed.
The VOIP Premium option was discovered by a user of the APB forums, later picked up on by Massively.
APB is built around a novel pay-as-you-go business model that sees players paying for hours of game time (the game comes with 50 hours included as part of the standard retail package). You'll also be able to subscribe to unlimited game time packages, or trade in-game currency for game time.
APB launches in North America today, across Europe on Thursday and in the UK on Friday. Look out for our review on Friday morning, after we've taken it out for a thorough spin on live servers. Plenty more info at the APB gamepage.