Develop reports that the property has been purchased by an anonymous American company, with no word on how the purchase will affect the 23 developers currently working on the game. One of the more optimistic scenarios has the American company temporarily hiring the Dundee-based staff in order to finish the project, but they may also opt to purchase the build and the IP and finish it themselves.

APB remains up for purchase, though interest in the sandbox MMO has reportedly been weaker than it was for Project MyWorld. According to numbers released by Begbies Traynor, appoximately 130,000 registered users play the game an average of four hours per day.

AP - Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank's retort was an Internet sensation.

Responding to a report by Shacknews, founder Brad Wardell posted on the game's official forums, "Elemental's revenue was anticipated to provide the revenue both for our main games team's next project as well as a second team. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to happen so we've had to start laying people off."

Wardell said that the layoffs are the first since the company's migration from the OS/2 market in 1998, and commented that it "sucks for all of us to lay off anyone."