Interview: Flagship Studios On Life After Hellgate Launch
What happens at the studio when a game doesn’t sell as well as was hoped? Imagine being at Flagship Studios after Hellgate: London’s launch stumbles, which 1UP identified as “one of the top 5 worst PC game launches of all time”. Angry PC gamers even invented a special term, “Flagshipped”, to refer to when a company overpromises and doesn’t deliver.
If you think morale might suffer on the team, a blog entry from Flagship Studios audio and gameplay manager Guy Somberg suggests you might be right. Somberg said on his blog that work had become “depressing” because of fan response to Hellgate’s issues. (The original post has since been pulled, but MMO fansite IncGamers retrieved it.)
Although Somberg wrote that he loved being part of Flagship, he also expressed a fair bit of worry about many of his colleagues moving on from their jobs:
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Popular in Asia? Are you serious? Hellgate is a complete flop in Korea, and it was only in 9th place during the first week. It’s since dropped to the 40-somethings according to the Korean Gamechart, and what’s worse is how the PC Bangs (cybercafes) in Korea are all demanding refunds because they can’t get anyone to play the game.
Ha. Popular.