Western Return for Hellgate Not Happening

[lost]

HanbitSoft might desire differently but Namco Bandai are having none of it. It appears that despite the games return in Asia anybody who was hoping for the fallen MMO to make a resurgence in the West should just get hooked on something else. From Gamasutra. (http://www.gamasutra.com)

Kee Young Kim, the CEO of HanbitSoft, was cited as explaining: "There have been many inquiries from US and European Hellgate players surrounding the availability of the game in those respective territories."

He continued: "HanbitSoft does own the intellectual property of Hellgate: London and is interested in providing the game in the US and Europe, but is unable to do so at this time because Namco Bandai has the publishing rights for those regions."

The HanbitSoft executive concluded: "We cannot open up the server in Korea to allow access by US and European players as this will constitute infringing upon Namco Bandai’s publishing rights in the US and Europe. HanbitSoft is currently doing its best to improve the game."

More here. (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23027/)

It sucked anyway didn't it?

[Phinor]

It lacked development time, content, polish and balance but it didn't suck. I did see a lot of potential but sadly they never got very close to the game's full potential. I guess this bit of news confirms the game is finally really dead (for EU/US). Oh well..

[Zetsuei]

Yay~! What great news.

[lockwoodx]

Hellgate London could have been great. I have a feeling EA put pressure on flagship studios just like it did with mythic in rushing WAR out the door. Next patch warhammer will finally be out of beta. Hellgate never made it that far due to horrible business practices and "fingers stuck-in-ears" attitude post launch.

[greenapple]

Hellgate London could have been great. I have a feeling EA put pressure on flagship studios just like it did with mythic in rushing WAR out the door. Next patch warhammer will finally be out of beta. Hellgate never made it that far due to horrible business practices and "fingers stuck-in-ears" attitude post launch.

This is a tired debate. EA didn't even get involved until HGL was already a couple years past its initial launch schedule. Even then, Roper himself said they were only involved as distributor.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/hellgatelondon/news.html?sid=6161406

"Bill Roper: EA's role in this partnership is focused on sales, marketing, and distribution. Namco continues to work with us on the development of the game just as they have over the past two years. We haven't changed our development and will not be altering our process, philosophies, or schedule because of this partnership."


Namco and Hanbit were the money behind HGL development, not EA. Both got burned so bad that Namco has essentially exited PC development and Hanbit got bought out (resulting in the current Hanbit).

Flagship's post-launch screw-ups left little doubt as to who was to blame for HGL's shortcomings.

[Gedd]

Mostly, yes, it sucked but it wasn't all bad. As a former US subscriber though, I would have apprieciated it if they had released a patch that enabled all the online content for the single player so we could at least still play it. Fucking ripoff.