Tag Archives: hellgate: london

We’re all agog to see how Hellgate’s relaunch shapes up, and so far, it seems to be fulfilling all expectations. Demons, check. Knights, check. Violence, check. Well! I think we’re done.

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Flagship CEO Bill Roper has said Hellgate: London’s failure boils down to simple over-ambition.

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HanbitSoft is interested in relaunching Hellgate: London in the US and Europe, but Namco Bandai’s western publishing deal prevents it, reports Gamasutra.

“There have been many inquiries from US and European Hellgate players surrounding the availability of the game in those respective territories,” said CEO Kee Young Kim.

“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.

“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.”

Namco was supposed to shut Hellgate servers down on January 31 this year.

More though the link.

Looks like the end has finally come for Hellgate: London, at least in its current form.

As of yesterday, the game servers and official website have finally, actually been closed.

Never fear, though. If you enjoyed the game you’ll eventually be able to start anew in its free-to-play form when HanbitSoft relaunches the game complete with new content and gameplay changes.

You may have to fear a little, though. The exact release date and territories to be serviced by the revamp are still to be announced.

More through Massively.

Hellgate London will continue to be published as a free-to-play title by Korean outfit HanbitSoft, the company’s confirmed.

No territories have been specified. Namco has already confirmed it’s to shut the game’s servers down in the West.

HanbitSoft said yesterdav that future updates for Hellgate: London are in the works, with a focus on “strengthening community features”.

The next “large-scale” patch, according to HanbitSoft, will be released “soon,” and will “combine the two game play modes, unifying the split two communities into one.”

More on Gamasutra.

Sorry Hellgate fans – even the promise of a new expansion won’t keep your game of choice from getting the padlock treatment in 2009.

Community manager Diane “Tiggs” Migliaccio explained in a post on the official Hellgate forums:

“People are speculating and I don’t want anyone shocked on January 31, 2009 when the server and forums shut down and there is nothing.”

“Let me explain things a bit to see if it clears up any issues for you. [Expansion developer/publisher] Hanbit owns the IP and rights to publish anywhere other than the US and EU and I think the other territory is Japan. NAMCO owns the rights to publish in the US and EU.”

And that’s that. For now.

By Nathan Grayson

Bit slow on this, sorry. HanbitSoft – the South Korean company that now owns the rights to Hellgate: London – has confirmed that there’s new content in the pipe for the troubled action-RPG-MMO.

“Since acquiring the intellectual property rights, HanbitSoft Inc., the publisher and distributor of Hellgate: London in Asia, has concentrated on the development of Hellgate: London, and has received many inquiries regarding new updates,” the game’s product manager wrote on his blog.

“Our US development studio is currently working on an update that is to surpass The Abyss Chronicles. This game will be available through our web site. We thank you once again for showing your interest and ask for your continuous support for Hellgate: London, as we hope to bring good news shortly. In the meantime, we will continue developing the world’s best game!”

The game caught on nicely in Asia, despite original creator Flagship biting the bullet earlier this year.

According to this Shacknews story, Namco will be shutting down Hellgate’s servers in February.

Until then, the game will be catered for as a “further gesture of support” from the firm.

Unpleasant. More through the link.

According to a post on the official Hellgate forums, Namco has stepped in to save the Flagship game being washed away in the wake of the developer’s demise.

“I know everyone is looking for an announcement, and we’d love to make one, but right now, many things are in flux and we don’t have all the information yet,” said Zack Karlsson, business development boss at Namco US. “As soon as we do, we’ll post here on the forums, on the website, and anywhere else we can find you.

“In the short term, please do not worry. The game is up, the servers are not going away in the short term and any major changes to status will be communicated in advance.”

There’s now a Hellgate homepage up on Namco’s site, so it looks as though there’s been a stay of execution on the part-MMO.

More soon.

Talking on his blog, Flagship audio and gameplay programmer Guy Somberg has admitted that the Hellgate studio has something of a leakage issue.

“So why is work depressing? The reason is that people are leaving. In droves, they’re leaving,” he said. “We’ve had programmers, accountants, HR people, and artists leave. The founders are all still around, but they’ve been floating away from Hellgate to work on various other projects. The only one still actively on Hellgate is Tyler, but Tyler’s not programming anymore; he spends all of his time on management activities.”

Hellgate, says Somberg, is not quite the game is was supposed to be.

“Hellgate is not a big success,” he added. “That sucks, and it’s depressing. I’m keeping a positive attitude about it because of Korea and China. The Koreans really love the game, and the Chinese have yet to see it. I don’t know how any of these deals are structured, but I’m hinging my hopes for Hellgate’s future on the Asian market.”

Whoops. More through the link. It doesn’t make for pretty reading, frankly.

Funny old world. Despite not really doing the do in the west, Flagship’s Hellgate: London has attracted over a million subscribers in Korea after only two weeks on sale, Joystiq reports. From the site:

Hellgate’s beta officially kicked off in Korea on January 15, and according to Korean online game tracking service Gametrics, the game quickly found an audiences with gamers in PC Cafes, ranking ninth among online games, fifth among RPGs, and was the most popular beta being played. This was followed by a commercial release on February 22, a launch that Flagship boasts achieved “record sales,” though it’s a record that we’re pretty sure will be broken soon enough.

Flagship head Bill Roper’s held his hands up over PC oddity Hellgate: London and said that it wasn’t the game he wanted it to be.

“I think that people had incredibly high expectations that we simply didn’t meet,” he said, adding, “We simply tried to do too much with the game. Vista, DirectX 10, being both a single-player boxed product and a multiplayer online game, a simultaneous launch in seven languages across Europe, the US and South East Asia, and creating our own fully-featured online destination on top of all that.”

Sounds like you may be right, Bill, but we do know a few Germans that properly love Hellgate because you “can just keep your finger down and keep firing.” There’s got to be something to be said for that.