Hellgate: London Developer Sheds Staff, Denies Takeover Rumor

[Dr.Finger]

Lots of news coming out of Flagship Studios, the development house responsible for Hellgate: London, and none of it is good.

Gamasutra is confirming (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19386) that the San Francisco-based studio is laying off a large number of employees, mostly those who woked on Hellgate and Flagship's in-house online services subsidiary, Ping0. The exact number of workers let go is not yet known.

On another front Flagship is denying a report from a Hellgate fansite (http://hellgateguru.com/2008/07/flagship-no-longer-owns-hellgate-london/) claiming that the title's Korean publisher, HanbitSoft, has assumed ownership of the property. Flagship calls the claim "an outright lie" and promises they will fight any attempt by HanbitSoft to claim any ownership of the IP in any region.

[Mondopest]

The full official Flagship statement:
'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.'
-Flagship Studios

[SilentScreams]

I wonder if it was all the "talent that made Diablo 2" that they fired.

[snubber]

Hmm, wonder if this will affect Mythos, the Travis Baldree title. It's in Beta now, and pretty enjoyable, a MMORPG follow-up to the WildTangent FATE game.

[snubber]

P.s. Typo in the title of this article: "Hellgate"

[Telefrog]

Wait. So, the rumor/story is an outright lie, or the actual takeover?

It sounds like (from the statement Mondopest posted) that the takeover by Hanbitsoft in Korea is happening and Flagship is trying to deal with it. Am I just reading it incorrectly?

Also, it's "Hellgate" not "Helgate".

*Scuttles off to Hellgate forums to read the fallout...

[bKangy]

Note to future devs: don't make such a shitty overhyped game that your entire success is pinned to.

[Mondopest]

Wait. So, the rumor/story is an outright lie, or the actual takeover?

It sounds like (from the statement Mondopest posted) that the takeover by Hanbitsoft in Korea is happening and Flagship is trying to deal with it. Am I just reading it incorrectly?

Also, it's "Hellgate" not "Helgate".

It is exactly how the outlet (http://www.gamingshogun.com)I primarily write for got it from Flagship. Reads to me the same way in that HanbitSoft is pulling shenanigans.

[Dr.Finger]

Wait. So, the rumor/story is an outright lie, or the actual takeover?

It sounds like (from the statement Mondopest posted) that the takeover by Hanbitsoft in Korea is happening and Flagship is trying to deal with it. Am I just reading it incorrectly?It sounds to me like the Korean outfit, HanbitSoft, is trying to assert ownership of Hellgate in their territory. Flagship is denying that they lost control of the property (the part they call a lie) while asserting that they won't let HanbitSoft steal their IP.

[Dr.Finger]

BTW, I'll look for the source, but I remember a story from a couple years back that sounds similar. A Korean company published a western game in their home territory, then tried to claim actual ownership of the IP in that region after it became apparent a sequel wouldn't be forthcoming.

[Mondopest]

BTW, I'll look for the source, but I remember a story from a couple years back that sounds similar. A Korean company published a western game in their home territory, then tried to claim actual ownership of the IP in that region after it became apparent a sequel wouldn't be forthcoming.

Wow. Was just about to post this exact statement. I recall the same thing. Was it Hanbitsoft?

[Dr.Finger]

I don't think it was HanbitSoft, but I have a terrible memory for names. I think the case may have been over Dark Age of Camelot though, but I'm not certain.

[Mondopest]

Also, the Indian company Zapak put out a false press release saying they were buying SOE in December (at least according to SOE it was false). These overseas companies and their cheeky shenanigans!

[jpublic]

I recently picked up Hellgate (hey, it was $10) and have been pretty much enjoying it, but honestly, if I was Flagship I'd release that Subscriber-only MP content to SP players. Make it a $5-10 charge, and you'd pick up huge cash.

[Telefrog]

By the way, the fanboy panic on the Hellgate forum (http://forums.hellgatelondon.com/showthread.php?t=106599) is hilarious.


Whats with you peeps? FSS could lay off the copy boy and some muppet would scream job cuts. Im willing to bet this and the other so called "news" are both fakes that these sites have jumped on because they have nothing else to report and they need the site traffic.

Yes, I'm sure Gamasutra is making it up. :D

[Deadend]

Hellgate: London sucks because it had shitty animation and sound. It was simply not fun to kill things that had no reaction to the guns or swords. Or at least that could be part of it. Whatever it was, the game was not fun at all.

[gawaintheblind]

I totally believe this is all a lie: nobody would want to take over the hellgate IP.

[Telefrog]

Update (http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/39851/Hellgate-Developers-Made-Redundant-Korean-Distributor-Takes-Control) from Hanbitsoft:


Please understand that the facts are (1) HanbitSoft is an exclusive licensee of both Hellgate and Mythos in Asia, with rights to sublicense the games; (2) in addition, HanbitSoft is a secured creditor who has been pledged the Mythos (but not the Hellgate) intellectual property as collateral for a loan; (3) Comerica, another secured lender, has been pledged the Hellgate intellectual property as its collateral for a loan; (4) Flagship Studios does not currently own the intellectual properties to either game, which are held in separate companies subject to the security interests of lenders, and Flagship Studios' interest in those companies is also pledged to its lenders; (5) it is unfortunate that Flagship turned down additional investments HanbitSoft offered to make that would have allowed it to keep its doors open, but HanbitSoft hopes to work with Comerica and some of the team at Flagship to see if there is a way to continue to generate content to keep Hellgate online in Asia and to finish the development of Mythos.

Comerica is the bank that funded a loan to FSS earlier in exchange for unspecified rights to FSS titles. It doesn't look good.

[Crimson]

So HanbitSoft licenses Hellgate which is bombing. Flagship gets ready to fire a ton of people. HanbitSoft knows their version of the game is doomed in Asia without more content. Plus, if Flagship dies then HanbitSoft's collateral (Mythos IP) is pretty much worthless. So HanbitSoft offers to "invest" in FlagShip to keep it afloat, but wants more (total?) ownership of the Hellgate IP. For some reason FlagShip says no (maybe it can't if Comerica Bank has final say?), fires a ton of people, meaning no/little future content for Hellgate, dooming the Asia Hellgate, most likely resulting in the inability to release/finish Mythos.... death spiral? Maybe the ex-Diablo 2 talent can submit their resumes to try to get on the Diablo 3 team to help during crunch?

[AgtFox]

Looks like it is time for the boys to go running back groveling to Blizzard with their tails between their legs. Sounds like some bad business and financial decisions were made and now they're going to pay for it.

[Mondopest]

Looks like a legal fight is brewing to suss out who is right and wrong in this. Although who knows how long Flagship could float the cost of legal counsel.

[Ancalagon]

By the way, the fanboy panic on the Hellgate forum (http://forums.hellgatelondon.com/showthread.php?t=106599) is hilarious.



Yes, I'm sure Gamasutra is making it up. :D

Dont worry, when the rumours are confirmed as true, I'll let you lick his tears.

[Talon-]

Note to future devs: don't make such a shitty overhyped game that your entire success is pinned to.

Note to publishers: Don't force your devs to release a game that's six months away from being finished.

Note to developers: You can't expect people to enjoy playing in the same dull environments over and over again.

[J Arcane]

Wait, wasn't there a story some weeks ago about some guy at Flaghip talking about how despressing it was watching everyone get fired, and then suddenly issuuing an awfully scripted-sounding correction claiming it was only a few people and he was justi n a bad mood?

[silv]

The sad bit, apart from the fired workers, is that Mythos was actually fun. HGL wasn't.

[AgtFox]

Wait, wasn't there a story some weeks ago about some guy at Flaghip talking about how despressing it was watching everyone get fired, and then suddenly issuuing an awfully scripted-sounding correction claiming it was only a few people and he was justi n a bad mood?
Yeah, I started that thread in PC forum.

[Magnanimous Gnome]

Another one bites the dust.

Flagship had a lot of promise early on that was clearly blown when Hellgate was released. Hopefully the talented workers find jobs soon.

[J Arcane]

Yeah, I started that thread in PC forum.
I thought so. Just wanted to make sure I had the right company. Guess the PR "apology" was as phony as it sounded. I wonder if the poor guy wound up being one of the ones getting the shaft?

[KNOTE]

I still can't believe the Diablo guys bombed so hard out of the gate. They had so much time and money! I guess there *is* some secret Blizzard magic process.

[AgtFox]

Someone close to Flagship has confirmed that "nearly everyone" at the studio has been laid off. Now, this is a hearsay rumor, but supposedly the person supplying the information is close to the development studio. That sucks that Mythos gets sucked down in this as well.

[Demo_Boy]

Flagship got Flagshipped!

google it

[thomasc]

I still can't believe the Diablo guys bombed so hard out of the gate. They had so much time and money! I guess there *is* some secret Blizzard magic process.
Modesty?..

[bstiff]

Maybe the ex-Diablo 2 talent can submit their resumes to try to get on the Diablo 3 team to help during crunch?

God I hope not. Seeing the mess they made of hellgate. How can you go wrong with demons and templars in high tech armor?

[bstiff]

I didn't know that Ping0 was part of fss. when they first started and they had the duplicated charges, fss seemed to act like it was a completely seperate company. then they had the thing about their billing servers not really being secure.

[jpublic]

Flagship got Flagshipped!

google it

Seriously, is there a point to this shit? Like what did you bother putting this in the Too Human thread for?

[Disgustipated]

My cousin works in the same building as these guys and says it's pretty dead in there. Like... you can walk right by and there's just nothing going on. Apparently it also looks like some people have quit/been laid off...

[Zander]

2 things.

Done on a friday, classic.

Maybe some of the Flagship guys could get in on the Diablo 3 action? Game looks like it's pretty far along though...

[Varsity]

Apparently it's all over. (http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/39866/Flagship-Studios-Closure-Confirmed-All-Staff-Fired-All-I-P-Lost) They've closed.

There's a Flagship guy in the comments there denying that the quote is his, but not denying that it's true.

[Telefrog]

Apparently it's all over. (http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/39866/Flagship-Studios-Closure-Confirmed-All-Staff-Fired-All-I-P-Lost) They've closed.

There's a Flagship guy in the comments there denying that the quote is his, but not denying that it's true.

Wow. :eek:

That is fucking crazy. I really do feel bad for the FSS team. As much pleasure as I take in being completely right about all my predictions for Hellgate, it sucks for the mid and low level guys that just wanted to do some quality work.

Bill Roper, learn your damn lesson and move on. You may have great game ideas, but you are a terrible businessman.

[Sloth]

I think HGL single player experience is pretty good. All the patches for it have really smoothed out the technical snags. It's a rip off to pay monthly for, but if you just play it as a single player game, it is worth the money.

[jpublic]

I think HGL single player experience is pretty good. All the patches for it have really smoothed out the technical snags. It's a rip off to pay monthly for, but if you just play it as a single player game, it is worth the money.


Especially considering it's only $10-15 now! I really think if they want to make some final money off of this, whomever owns the product should release update packs for offline play, and not restrict all that crap for online.

[SuicideKing]

It looks like Flagship is officially dead. (http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/39866/Flagship-Studios-Closure-Confirmed-All-Staff-Fired-All-I-P-Lost)

According to VE3D. Should the main post be updated?

[SuicideKing]

It looks like Flagship is officially dead. (http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/39866/Flagship-Studios-Closure-Confirmed-All-Staff-Fired-All-I-P-Lost)

According to VE3D. Should the main post be updated?

Crap... I double checked to see whether this had already been posted too.... Only to now see it had.

[Stooby]

I just bought hellgate for $20 a month ago. It is slightly fun, but it doesn't really seem like the patches did much besides fix a few small bugs. Mythos is a far superior game.

They really didn't understand what made Diablo fun, though. Hellgate completely shredded everything that made Diablo fun and just left the stuff that was filler in the game. That is probably why the first iteration of Diablo 3 was so bad and Blizzard had to sack it and start over.