Kotaku: flagship

Original Diablo Producer Thinks Diablo III Isn't Diablo Enough

Mike Fahey — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:20:00 MDT

Someone fetch original Diablo producer Bill Roper a rainbow unicorn t-shirt, as the former VP of Blizzard North explains that Diablo III just doesn't feel like a Diablo game.

Roper worked with Blizzard back when there was a Blizzard North. His studio was responsible for the Diablo series, while Blizzard proper in Irvine, California worked on the 'craft' titles - StarCraft and WarCraft. Bill believes the merging of the studios resulted in a more cartoony, less-Diablo version of Diablo III.

"I think that one of the things that we always tried to get across was that Diablo was Gothic fantasy and I think there was just a need that was put in there from the visuals that I didn't necessarily get. I got it from the architecture and to a degree from the character design but not the feeling of the world. I can't say that I dislike it. I didn't look at it and go, oh my God that's horrible. But I looked at it and went, it's not really... to me as a player it just didn't really ring with Diablo."

Cutting words, but you have to put things into perspective with this sort of thing. Bill Roper went on to form Flagship Studios, who created Hellgate London, and we all know how well that game went.

Diablo 3: What Bill Roper thinks [VideoGamer.com]

HanbitSoft To Continue Hellgate: London - No Really

Mike Fahey — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:40:00 MST

Despite news to the contrary back in November, Korean publisher and developer HanbitSoft still plans to maintain Hellgate: London as a free-to-play title on a global scale after Namco Bandai's January 31st server shutdown.

HanbitSoft first announced plans to relaunch the game back in early November of last year, after Namco Bandai announced that servers would close on January 31st, 2009. Namco Bandai then dismissed the announcement, claiming the company did not own the IP for the US and Europe.

Now HanbitSoft is once again asserting that they own the worldwide rights to the Flagship Studios title, and will be maintaining it as a free-to-play game, with a large-scale patch coming soon, combining Hellgate's two play modes and unifying the community.

The question we should really be asking ourselves at this point, is does anyone really still care? I suppose we'll find out come February 1st.

HanbitSoft: Hellgate London To Continue As Free-To-Play Title [Gamasutra]

Flagship Seattle Alums Form Runic Games

Owen Good — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:00:00 MDT

You might recall the demise of Hellgate developer Flagship Studios from last month, and the subsequent shutdown of Mythos and IP fight over Hellgate. Now Flagship's former Seattle team has reconstituted itself as Runic Games, continuing its focus on action-MMORPG games.

Travis Baldree, formerly of Flagship Seattle, emailed us Sunday with the news release. He was the project director for Mythos and is now the president of the new venture. Baldree is joined on the management team by Max Schaefer, formerly executive producer for Mythos. Baldree said all 14 on the Seattle team are aboard — "basically the whole Mythos team."

The studio has a Web site, and the full news release is on the jump.

Seattle, Wash., Aug. 8 — The former Flagship Studios Seattle team is proud to announce their reformation as Runic Games (www.runicgames.com). As the team responsible for the highly-anticipated Mythos at Flagship Studios, Runic Games intends to continue to use their expertise in the Action-RPG MMO genre to create the best games in this market.

The studio is headed by Travis Baldree and Max Schaefer. Travis served as Project Director for Mythos at Flagship Seattle, and previously created the bestselling Action-RPG FATE. Max was the Executive Producer for Mythos, and one of the original founders of Blizzard North, the creators of the bestselling Diablo franchise. He was also one of the founding members of Flagship Studios.

Announcements about Runic Games' forthcoming projects will be made in the coming days.

For more information about Runic Games, or for inquiries about potential partnerships, please contact us at press@runicgames.com.

Runic Games [Official Site]

Hellgate, Mythos Development Picked Up By Korean Publisher

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 02:30:00 MDT

So Flagship (and Hellgate) are sunk, and Mythos has been canned along with them, right? Not necessarily! According to some job postings over on Gamasutra and DICE.com, Korean publisher T3 is opening a development studio in San Francisco, and will continue work on both titles. Seems random, but T3 own a controlling stake in HanbitSoft, Hellgate's Korean publisher, and the company at the centre of a tussle over ownership of the game as Flagship was going down. A tussle they seem to be well on the way to winning. The news probably won't matter to Hellgate players since, outside of Korea, there really aren't any left, but it's good news for Mythos fans.

Report: T3 To Continue Hellgate, Mythos Development In SF Office [Gamasutra]

Hellgate London Beta Signups Are Go

Mike Fahey — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 18:30:20 MDT

Being the only one writing during the day yesterday means I was bound to miss something important in my quest to do the work of four men all at once. I remember seeing something about the Hellgate: London beta signups yesterday, but then my gaming-information drunk mind carried me off in some other direction, leaving a few Kotaku readers without the necessary knowledge needed to know how to get signed up for a chance at the beta. What I am trying to say here is I deserve a spanking for not pointing you to the Hellgate Beta Signup Page and telling you to enter your email address. Luckily Kotakuite Barry was there to guide me back on the path of righteousness. If you guys run into Barry, give him a hug for me.

Hellgate Trailer of Awesome

Mike Fahey — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 11:20:04 MDT

You might have seen it before, but it deserves the extra attention. I see a ton of trailers every day, but none of them so far have compared to the sheer awesome exuded by this trailer for Hellgate: London. It has action, a compelling story told by a very competent narrator, and most importantly, it has this line: "Man is the weapon...the constant unyielding fighter fueled by faith. Faith..in himself." Not generally a big fan of mankind myself, but this made me want to go out and give random people the old thumbs up. Go mankind! You rock.