The closed beta test for the soon-to-be-revived Hellgate kicks off next month, and T# Entertainment has your closed beta keys. Hit up the Hellgate website to secure one for yourself and relive the horror. More »
Korean publisher HanbitSoft is finally ready to reopen Hellgate, Flagship Studios’ online multiplayer tale of demonic invasion, in North America. Closed beta for the free-to-play game launches in early June, with a full release coming later this year. More »
Just when you thought North America and Europe were safe from the invasion of hell spawn, Korean online gaming publisher HanbitSoft goes and acquires international publishing rights for Hellgate from Namco Bandai, and all hell breaks loose. More »
MMO Hellgate died. Then it was bought out, and is back (in Asia). In the West, however, it remains dead, despite the best efforts of new franchise owners HanbitSoft.
Hellgate: London‘s development, like its eventual implosion, was epic. At GDC, Stephen Goldstein, Flagship Studio’s ex-director of business development, explained just how what seemed like a guaranteed hit went horribly, regrettably wrong.
Despite news to the contrary back in November, Korean publisher and developer HanbitSoft still plans to maintain Hellgate: London as a free-to-play title on a global scale after Namco Bandai’s January 31st server shutdown.
Hellforge posits that 2008 was the worst year on record for MMOs. But the “collapse” had nothing to do with the genre’s viability, and everything to do with hubris and poor decisions by game-makers.
I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you this. Contrary to recent reports, Hellgate: London will only be clawing its way out of the abyss in Asia. Fans of the game in the US and Europe will be bidding the game farewell at the end of January, as expected.
Poor Hellgate. It promised so much, and delivered so little. So little, in fact, that it drove developers Flagship Studios out of business. As the mourners file slowly away from the studio’s funeral and make their way towards the free finger food and drinks, it’s time to reflect on just why Hellgate never made it. Creator Bill Roper has a fairly good idea:
Some of them were just bad timing in the PC market. The PC market was lousy last year. Some of it was the fact that we were an independent studio. We didn’t have unlimited money, and we had to ship when we had to ship. Part of it was because we overreached, and that was a design problem that was totally our fault. We tried to do too much. We tried to be a standalone game and a free-play game and an MMO and an RPG and a shooter. We were trying to be something for everybody and ended up really not pleasing many people at all….
Sounds about right to us! Bill Roper: ‘Hellgate Wasn’t As Good As It Should Have Been’ [1UP]
So Flagship (and Hellgate) are sunk, and Mythos has been canned along with them, right? Not necessarily! According to some job postings over on Gamasutra and DICE.com, Korean publisher T3 is opening a development studio in San Francisco, and will continue work on both titles. Seems random, but T3 own a controlling stake in HanbitSoft, Hellgate’s Korean publisher, and the company at the centre of a tussle over ownership of the game as Flagship was going down. A tussle they seem to be well on the way to winning. The news probably won’t matter to Hellgate players since, outside of Korea, there really aren’t any left, but it’s good news for Mythos fans.
Report: T3 To Continue Hellgate, Mythos Development In SF Office [Gamasutra]
