Namco-Bandai Rescuing Hellgate From Sinking Flagship?

Namco-Bandai may be stepping in to rescue Hellgate: London from embattled Flagship Studios, who recently suspended private testing for Mythos in the wake of widespread reports that the studio was shutting down.

We've approached Flagship for comment and they've yet to explain their status to us. Then, a posting appeared on Hellgate's official forums from Namco-Bandai's senior director of business development, Zack Karlsson, stating:

Hello Hellgaters,

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. As soon as we do, we'll post here on the forums, on the website, and anywhere else we can find you.

The posting continued:

Flagship Suspends Mythos Indefinitely

Flagship Studios has reportedly suspended private beta testing for Mythos, shutting down the game's servers and message board — but not before an official explanation was posted on the forums by Flagship co-founder and COO Max Schaefer:

Unlike most games, Mythos has been running with our testing community for almost its whole life. I really feel like we’ve all done this together. And despite this bump in the road, I think we’ve succeeded wildly. This is undoubtedly the best game community I’ve ever seen. This is the best game development team in the world, in both Seattle and San Francisco. The things we’ve learned here, and with you all, will be with us forever."

The game's official site calls the suspension a "hiatus," but offers no date as to when private beta or further development will resume.

Word started passing yesterday that Flagship Studios went caput, and now multiple sites are reporting 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.

Interview: Flagship Studios On Life After Hellgate Launch

What happens at the studio when a game doesn't sell as well as was hoped? Imagine being at Flagship Studios after Hellgate: London's launch stumbles, which 1UP identified as "one of the top 5 worst PC game launches of all time." Angry PC gamers even invented a special term, "Flagshipped," to refer to when a company overpromises and doesn't deliver.

If you think morale might suffer on the team, a blog entry from Flagship Studios audio and gameplay manager Guy Somberg suggests you might be right. Somberg said on his blog that work had become "depressing" because of fan response to Hellgate's issues. (The original post has since been pulled, but MMO fansite IncGamers retrieved it.)

Although Somberg wrote that he loved being part of Flagship, he also expressed a fair bit of worry about many of his colleagues moving on from their jobs:

Thing is, the way things are going I’m likely to be the only programmer still working on Hellgate left from the original crew. I’ve heard rumours that other programmers and artists are thinking of leaving.

And with Somberg himself writing that he was "getting burned out on Hellgate," Kotaku decided to reach out to Flagship Studios and see what was really going on.

"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."

Flagship Studios has announced a new patch for Hellgate: London. Patch 1.2 contains a bunch of new features and improvements to the game. Most notable is the addition of an in-game mail system that will allow players not only to communicate, but to send items to each other as well. There is also a major character class balance and upgrades to certain in-game characters. Also included is a new enemy, six new weapons, higher monster spawns in certain areas and "pets with abilities."

All the gory details of the patch can be found on the Hellgate:London forums.

Mythos Gameplay Makes Us Question Life, Allegiance

Most of us at Kotaku (everyone minus Fahey) generally avoid MMOs like cactus barbed with Hello Kitty needles. But this new trailer of Mythos (the Flagship Studios Diabloesque MMO made by some ex-Blizzard folks) has us seriously questioning whether or not we really need lives after all, and if interactions with others—in the flesh, without the +2 Electric Boots of Courage—aren't entirely overrated.

It's a short clip, but it gets the point across. Until we see Diablo 3, this is our Diablo 3. On a side note, if Blizzard wants my $15 a month, they officially know how to get it.

New footage from Dialbo-y MMO Mythos [via N4G]

Xfire is hosting a special chat with the developers of Hellgate: London this Wednesday, which acts as both the launch day for the game as well as International Spooky Day. Flagship Studios CEO Bill Roper rounds out the five-man crack team of people who discuss things:pertaining to Hellgate:

* Bill Roper, CEO Flagship Studios
* Aletheia Simonson, Art Producer
* Bill Manegold, Game Programmer
* Amir Ebrahimi, Graphics Programmer
* Guy Somberg, Audio and Gameplay Programmer

Hellgate: London Page at Xfire [Xfire]

It's been an extremely long time coming, but Flagship Studios has announced that the oft-delayed Hellgate: London has finally been freed from the nest, finding a new home at the manufacturing plant. A very proud Bill Roper of Flagship, teary-eyed from an errant stream of champagne and certainly not emotion, said that making Hellgate: London was an "amazing journey for us."

Whomever writes the press releases at EA or Namco Bandai Games reveals that the singe-player demo for the PC game will go live this Friday, October 19. Gamers will get their hands on the full version of the game on Halloween day. Yay!

HGL Gone Gold, Demo Coming! [Hellgate: London]

Diablo 3 Talk From Blizzard's Ex

I think with Diablo, for example, the camera angle is a big part of it. I think with the Diablo series there is a level of expectation about only using the mouse to move.

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