The US server is essentially capped at its current playerbase due to 40-40 limitations and no queue system. There's only one bronze server and one silver server at the PEAK of Jericho. You can sit there and click spam join district for 20 minutes but MAN does that feel like a really low quality way to spend your time. There is STILL no way to put yourself in a queue to join a district. You don't just give up and join an empty district, so with that in mind, we are capped at our current PEAK playerbase. I'm fairly confident that developing a queue system is more important than developing a gamemode that (almost) nobody wants. I hate to say it but we may not end up needing a queue system at this rate, if playerbase continues to decline and we never see full districts.
I get that Citadel still has a pretty decent playerbase however, and maybe a queue system isn't so essential since there's multiple districts to choose from.
Re-inventing the APB wheel isn't going to save the game, but new content and the EU *might*.
So, either LO is in way over their heads and cannot develop a queue system, let alone an engine upgrade, or they have really poor prioritization in my opinion. The player reviews of RIOT speak for themselves, "neat...but meh". People play APB for its unique gunplay and customization, not for BR elements. (Yes I know some people will disagree and argue its not BR but it is, it really is)
I get that there are people out there who are utterly stoked for RIOT, so I don't want to sound like I'm being ignorant, but I think the vast majority of people would rather see other things happen to APB.
I believe RIOT will be added to the pile of failures along with open conflict among other things.
Thoughts?