The APB plot thickened this morning with a new report that suggested Epic Games may buy the luckless online game.

The Gears of War maker was "one of the companies in the frame", the BBC heard from a source.

Epic's non-denial stirred the pot further.

"Mark [Rein - Epic VP] absolutely loves APB, and everyone here loved what they saw," said spokesperson Dana Cowley.

"We've got our hands full of Gears of War 3, Bulletstorm and the recently announced Project Sword. If any talks like that are going on, then they would be confidential."

Epic Games supplied the Unreal Engine 3 technology that APB was built upon. But the friendship didn't stop there: Epic's Mark Rein even demoed APB to a PAX audience last year.

APB creator and Realtime Worlds founder Dave Jones is believed to have relocated to the US. Coincidence?

A Dundee development source told Eurogamer last night: "Dave Jones and Epic is quite the talking point in town. He and Mr Rein are good chums and have worked together on many levels for years and years and years. And he's not going to raise much money/staff here in the near future."

Should the news hold water, the question will be why Epic has waited this long to make its move.

Yesterday we heard that administrators will pull the plug on APB servers within 24 hours.