All Points Bulletin gets a second chance as a free-to-play game.

It's official: All Points Bulletin will be reborn as a free-to-play game. GamersFirst, a publisher of F2P MMOs, announced today that it has acquired the rights to the game and will be relaunching it as APB: Reloaded in the first half of 2011. GameIndustry.biz broke the news last week, but this is the first time GamersFirst officially announced the deal.

The demise of All Points Bulletin shocked the gaming community in September when Realtime Worlds shut down the game a mere three months after its launch. While the studio was forced to close, the good news is that the sale of the intellectual property rights will allow all outstanding wages and holiday pay claims to be met in full.

GamersFirst has also launched a blog to keep players up-to-date on APB: Reloaded news and explain how the game will change from a subscription-based model to a free-to-play system.