GTA MMO developed by Crackdown team?

According to rumours circulating on the internet, Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds has just bought back the rights to the APB MMO game it'd been making after selling the rights to a Korean publisher.

Realtime Worlds, which was founded by GTA creator David Jones, had been working on APB since the release of Crackdown and the game was basically being billed as an online version of Grand Theft Auto.

Now though the rumour, according to some insider sources cited by Eurogamer, is that Realtime Worlds has bought the license back so that APB can be re-badged and sold to Rockstar as a ready-made Grand Theft Auto Online game.

Why Realtime bought the license back from Korean games publisher Webzen is currently unconfirmed, but given the recent release of Grand Theft Auto IV and the fact that Realtime worlds has a history of replicating the success of the GTA franchise, it certainly looks likely.

Realtime Worlds is currently keeping schtum on all these rumours of course and has said it only bought back the rights to the game to "give themselves some options".

Are you excited by the idea of a GTA MMO, or are you simply bewildered by the number of acronyms on show here? Let us know what you think in the forums.