APB-Reloaded’s open beta starts 18 May

APB is almost ready to emerge from its cocoon as the revitalised APB-Reloaded, new owners K2 Network reveals.
The MMO has been in hibernation (and closed beta) since K2 purchased it from the insolvant Realtime Worlds at the end of 2010. Yesterday, though, it was announced that APB-Reloaded would enter open beta on 18 May.
You may very well be able to get in earlier though, because the team states that “between now and the Open Beta date (ie for the next two weeks) we will progressively permit access to MOST PEOPLE (17 or older in the US and 18 or older in the rest of the world) who do two things (1) creates (or already has) a GamersFirst Account with the appropriate info (see the link to the right of the blog) and then (2) submits his/her email (matching the G1 account) at the front of the APB page (www.gamersfirst.com/apb) in the “Newsletter Signup Email form.””

This, the developers say, will help them progressively test their beta servers over the coming days. 40,000 people are due to be given access today.
In addition, “we will release the character restoration system, to reclaim old [APB] characters and customizations. We will send out emails to everyone that have characters that they can reclaim.”