March 2010? Best of luck to you, Hellgate.

"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," said NAMCO's Diane Migliaccio in a post to the Hellgate: London forums.

Hanbit software had announced an expansion to the game but, explains Migliaccio, "Hanbit owns the IP and rights to publish anywhere other then the US and EU. NAMCO owns the rights to publish in the US and EU."

New's about Hellgate's Future [Hellgate Forums via Blues News]

But wait! New owners of the Hellgate brand, HanbitSoft, have announced that they are hard at work on a new expansion for what they touchingly refer to as "the world’s best game".

"Our US development studio is currently working on an update that is to surpass 'The Abyss Chronicles'" HanbitSoft said in a letter to their own PR Manager, "This game will be available through our Web site."

The letter is signed "Sincerely, Hellgate: London Product Manager - also a fellow user that loves to play Hellgate: London."

Letter from HGLD Product Manager [Hanbitsoft-GameEspresso via au.Gamespot]

“Bill brings a ton of creative energy to the Cryptic office and we’re thrilled to have him join our team,” said John Needham, Chief Executive Officer for Cryptic Studios. “His years of gaming and online experience are huge assets to all of our projects, and Bill will assist us in furthering our studio’s vision to create innovative, exciting MMO gameplay.”

The news comes about four months after the publisher of Hellgate went belly up and Roper broke down why the shooter, MMO, RPG didn’t do so well. Hellgate, which seems totally rudderless now, officially closes its doors on Jan. 31.

“Cryptic has experienced huge growth over the past year and has exciting opportunities ahead of it,” said Bill Roper, Design Director, Cryptic Studios. “The company knows how to choose compelling IPs that have rich histories such as Champions and Star Trek. I’m looking forward to working with the team.”

Cryptic Studios Hires Industry Veteran Bill Roper

Los Gatos, CA – November 3, 2008 – Cryptic Studios™, one of the leading independent developers of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), announced today that Bill Roper has joined the company as Design Director and will be working on Champions Online™.

“Bill brings a ton of creative energy to the Cryptic office and we’re thrilled to have him join our team,” said John Needham, Chief Executive Officer for Cryptic Studios. “His years of gaming and online experience are huge assets to all of our projects, and Bill will assist us in furthering our studio’s vision to create innovative, exciting MMO gameplay.”

“Cryptic has experienced huge growth over the past year and has exciting opportunities ahead of it,” said Bill Roper, Design Director, Cryptic Studios. “The company knows how to choose compelling IPs that have rich histories such as Champions and Star Trek. I’m looking forward to working with the team.”

As a 14-year game industry veteran, Roper has worked directly on numerous top selling titles, including the Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo series. He joined Blizzard Entertainment in 1994 to work in sound, music and voiceover, eventually being appointed as Vice President of Blizzard North and a Director of Blizzard Entertainment where he managed all external projects and coordinated internal development teams. In 2003, Roper co-founded Flagship Studios and Ping0 where he held the role of CEO for five years and oversaw the launch of Hellgate: London and development of Mythos.

Cryptic Studios, headquartered in Los Gatos, is currently in production of two highly anticipated MMO action games, Champions Online and Star Trek® Online. Champions Online, based on the popular Champions™ pen-and-paper RPG and published by 2K Games, will give players the power of total customization for their hero experience while they explore a vast comic book universe. Set in the year 2409, Star Trek Online will allow players to immerse themselves in the future of the Star Trek universe, exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilizations in an ever expanding vast universe.

For more information about Cryptic Studios, please log onto www.crypticstudios.com

About Cryptic Studios
Cryptic Studios, Inc., based in Los Gatos, CA, and established in July 2000, is one of the leading independent developers of massively multiplayer online games. Cryptic is developing three major titles for the PC and current generation consoles, including Star Trek Online, Champions Online and an unannounced project. Cryptic Studios is an independent, employee-owned company committed to delivering the next level of MMOG gameplay. For more information on Cryptic Studios, please visit www.crypticstudios.com

Flagship Studio's troubled demon hunting MMO will be shut down at midnight on January 31st 2009. Namco Bandai, who have been running the Hellgate servers since Flagship went under, say that the game will be free to play until it is shut down.

The game had been plagued with bugs and operational problems since its 2007 launch and eventually led to its developers, Flagship Studios, going out of business in July this year.

Hellgate: London Closing January 31st [Gamespot]

We're certainly sad with the results for Flagship and what's happened with Hellgate, because at the time we signed it, we were trying to get involved in a very complicated relationship between Namco and Flagship. We were coming late to the party, and trying to do whatever we could to sprinkle the game magic on the project and get it headed in the right direction.

I think that's an example where all three parties had the best interest of the game in mind, and sometimes the game doesn't work out. Hellgate is still an incredible concept. The guys who worked on it spent thousands of hours trying to make that concept work, and sometimes we just don't see something. Sometimes, we just didn't take enough time. Sometimes, things don't work out the way you expect.

It's kind of like a film with all big stars — on the script, it should be successful, but the movie doesn't turn out as good as everybody hoped. That's why EAP takes a portfolio approach with its games. You have to place a lot of bets, and hope for a lot of hits.

Certainly worth a read through — I always enjoy reading interviews that cover a lot of ground, and this certainly satisfies in that respect.

David DeMartini on the Renaissance of EA Partners [Gamasutra]

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]

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

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:

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.

I'd like to ask for your patience as we try to figure it all out and chart a new course. We value your community, your commitment, and your passion for Hellgate and we will make sure that any solution that we architect will support all of you as best as we are able.

Thanks again. We hope to have a real announcement shortly.

Add in the fact that there's now a Hellgate page on Namco-Bandai's official site, it certainly looks like it would like to help out — if they can. HanbitSoft, Flagship's Korean partner/owner, recently claimed Flagship rejected its attempts to buy Hellgate out, and that the game is actually collateral on a loan made to the studio by Comerica. Namco-Bandai most likely had to do some wrangling (and maybe still has to do some) to set this up.

As for Mythos, HanbitSoft itself claims the right to that. We've contacted Namco-Bandai for comment, continue to check in with Flagship, and will update with anything we receive.

[via Videogaming247]

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.

Fan site Hellgate Guru first reported that HanbitSoft was taking full control of Hellgate: London and intended to continue the game. That brought a forceful denial from Flagship, and confirmation from HanbitSoft's own attorneys (who slipped in a backhanded dig at the failing studio, which pretty much confirms Flagship's demise.)

HanbitSoft's attorneys said that while they're an exclusive licensee of Hellgate and Mythos, it's been pledged only the Mythos IP. Secured lender Comerica gets the Hellgate IP as collateral on the loan. Either way, Flagship does not own either, and also:

[I]t 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.

That sounds like the "brand new company" possibility our tipster mentioned. Either way, HanbitSoft says it threw Flagship a lifeboat, and it chose to go to the bottom. Ouch.

Finally, VE3D says it got more confirmation early this morning:

Flagships's Community Manager, Taylor Balbi, has revealed, through sources, that all Ping0 and Flagship Studios staff have been made redundant. Employees were notified at a company meeting and subsequently informed that the offices will be officially closed on Saturday. Balbi went on to reveal that three of the studio's top brass dug into their own pockets to provide 30 days of pay to all employees.

Our source says an official announcement will come next week (like what, at E3?)

Flagship Studios' Closure Confirmed, All Staff Fired, All I.P. Lost [Voodoo Extreme]

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.

We first heard back from Flagship's marketing communications manager, web manager and writer Ivan Sulic, who said while he couldn't speak about Somberg's emotions, he guessed they were "like anyone who spent a lot of time and effort on something that wasn't received as well as hoped... And then a few of our friends and coworkers left. It's a bummer."

Bummers aside, though, Sulic said that nobody's been taken off or left the Hellgate team except for systems programmer Peter Hu, who's been able to work on some other projects now that the game is well underway. Said Sulic, "Everything else is pretty much business as usual."

Said Sulic, "We've actually had very few people leave. Flagship is still fully staffed and working on both Hellgate and Mythos... I think we have about 100 employees now."

Some people have moved on from Flagship, said Sulic, due to simply moving up on their career paths or being tired of windy San Francisco, but said those departures don't constitute cause for alarm. "People finish a game, want to work on something else, and then leave to do just that. It's pretty typical in this industry. I don't know the exact number, but we couldn’t have had more than five or six departures. Still, if those five or six dudes are people you work with everyday, it can't feel great."

And Somberg himself joined the conversation. "Ivan said it quite well," he said. "Things here at Flagship are running business as usual. We’ve just put a build of Chronicle 2 onto our test center, which has represented a lot of hard work from everybody at the company, myself included."

Somberg said he'd written that blog post on a day when he felt "frustrated and overwhelmed," but that after some hot chocolate, a few hours' game time and some sleep, he felt better.

Said Somberg, "I was surprised and disappointed at the community’s response to my words, which were more directed at my family and friends to describe my state of mind at the time, than to give any sort of insight into the company. Personally, I think that the 'Towers of Hanoi' series of posts on my blog is far more interesting and worthy of commentary and analysis."

"I’m sorry to have caused such a ruckus over such a small thing."

On the bright side of things for the Hellgate team is the fact that the game is performing so well in Asia. The studio said it had the best Korean game launch in 3 years, leading to Hellgate becoming the ninth most popular online game in an MMO-saturated region.

It's often easy for us as gamers to criticize the studios when they make mistakes, and to feel vengeful when we're disappointed. It's probably best for us all to keep in mind that behind every big publisher's title is a team of developers who hoped to provide the best experience they could, human beings who feel bummed out when the results aren't what they hoped.

Top 5 Botched PC Game Launches [1UP]

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.

To be honest, the way that Blizzard is approaching StarCraft II is really smart. They're saying, 'OK, what do the millions of StarCraft fans very specifically want from a StarCraft experience? Great, well that's what we're going to give them.

Bill Roper: What I'd do with Diablo 3 [cvg]

Ack! That's the night-mare inducing Hellgate: London Volkswagen. We're easy and usually pretty excited about game mobiles, but this car is bad-idea-throw-up on wheels. Confused, we're unable to figure out which is worse: the shape of the car or that decal job. The Hellgate Korean cars were more better and less crappy. Brian Ashcraft

Hellgate VW [Hellgate Guru Thanks, Dennise!]