hellgate: london

Namco Bandai Holding Up The Return Of Hellgate

6:00PM Luke Plunkett | 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. More »

Where Hellgate: London And Flagship Studios Went Horribly Wrong

10:00AM Michael McWhertor | 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. More »

HanbitSoft To Continue Hellgate: London – No Really

2:40AM Mike Fahey | 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. More »

As You Were, Hellgate Not Reopening In US/EU

10:20AM Stuart Houghton | 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. More »

Hellgate Creator On Why Hellgate Sucked

8:00PM Luke Plunkett | 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] More »

Hellgate, Mythos Development Picked Up By Korean Publisher

6:30PM Luke Plunkett | 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] More »

Flagship Sunk, Who’s In Charge of Hellgate?

1:00AM Owen Good | Word started passing yesterday that Flagship Studios went caput, and now multiple sites are reporting word that the Hellgate developer is indeed no more. We got an anonymous tipster who said Flagship shut down abruptly yesterday, and that developers for both Hellgate (San Francisco) and Mythos (Seattle) have all been pink-slipped. “But there’s also hope that they will all have their jobs back at the end of next week at a brand new company”, our tipster says. But wait, there’s more. Flagship’s Korean partners/owners, Hanbitsoft, were said to be taking over. That sparked a foofaraw regarding who owns the Hellgate intellectual property. More »

Flagship Co-Founder: Hellgate Was Overambitious, Rushed

12:40AM Mike Fahey | We’re all pretty much aware that Hellgate: London failed, and I’d say we’re all pretty sure of the reasoning behind that failure, but it’s always nice to get confirmation from someone in the know. In an interview with Eurogamer mainly dealing with their new MMO Mythos, Flagship’s operations chief and co-founder Max Schaefer explains that the company just bit off more than they could chew. More »

Hellgate: London Korea’s Most Successful Launch

1:20AM Mike Fahey | From worst to first! Just last month, Flagship’s Hellgate: London made 1UP’s list of the top five botched PC game launches of all time, with regular server crashes and people being billed multiple times for premium subscriptions. The Southeast Asian launch went even worse, with Infocomm Asia Holdings nearly wiping all player progress within the first 30 days of launch. It’s amazing what a few months can do, because now Hellgate: London is being touted as Korea’s most successful online game launch in 3 years. There are over a million active accounts, and the game is the 9th most-played game in the country. Sheesh. “To become the most successful launch in Korea for over three years is an incredible achievement,” said Bill Roper, CEO of Flagship Studios. “This milestone wouldn’t have been possible for us to achieve without the incredible support of our publishing partner, Hanbitsoft, and our dedicated community in Korea.” Wow, that Hanbitsoft must have the most magical marketing team ever! Hit the jump for the press release, which actually contains the words ‘Hellgate”, ‘Successful’, and ‘Launch’, all in the same spot. More »