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]