July 15th, 2008

Hellgate London News Update

Hellgate: London is not one of those games easy to forget, especially because there are plenty of reasons to come back to it every couple of days, or even every day, if you have enough time to spare... but now, the Hellgate is in danger! Why? Well, it seems the developer of the game, Flagship Studios, has been taken out of the game! I know it sounds strange, but it may be possible for Hellgate: London to go on without its creators, as we're going to see right away...

Released back in late October, 2007, Hellgate: London is, for many Diablo fans, the game they were waiting for, especially since this has been created by the same group that worked on the Diablo series at Blizzrd Entertainment, and separated from that company some time ago. Since its release, Hellgate: London received one major update, called The Stonehenge Chronicles. As things look now, the game still has a long life ahead, but Flagship Studios may file for bankruptcy in the near future, so... what will happen with Hellgate, after all?

At the end of last week, the Korean news website TheGames reported that HanbitSoft is taking full control over the Hellgate: London intellectual property from Flagship Studios, and they claim the reason of being "hard for us to accept Flagship Studios’ requests for continued support in capital and funding any longer and because Flagship was being difficult." The good part is that HanbitSoft intends to "properly manage and develop Hellgate: London into a good game with proper content," but this also means a new team of developers. If the outcome for gamers that already paid a lifetime subscription to Hellgate(valued at $150) will be a happy one, or not, that remains to be seen. Obviously, I am also thinking about the other subscribers, but I think they will lose less if things go terribly wrong...

The funny part followed one day later, when Flagship Studios replied to that news report, and here's what they had to say: "This story is an outright lie. We have no idea where they are getting their information from and have asked legal counsel to pursue the issue. We are mystified by Hanbitsoft’s conclusions and any attempt to take over the IP will be met with a strong and swift response, to “illegally take over the IP”. All right title and interest in Hellgate: London resides in Flagship Financing, LLC a wholly-owned subsidiary of Flagship Studios. We are outraged that Hanbitsoft would attempt to completely tarnish the reputation of its most vital developer. Hanbitsoft’s new management clearly does not understand the terms of its relationship with Flagship."

For now, everything seems to be really foggy, because various reports claim that Flagship Studios is cutting down its workforce, but no official reports went through just yet. Well, until we get to see an official report, we should continue enjoying Hellgate: London, and be happy with "Nothing Official has been stated about what is going on, everything you see or hear is speculation and rumors" as the only thing that is sure...