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Flagship Studios (makers of Hellgate:London) Closing Down
JennysMind
Member UncommonPosts: 869
I posted another link in the Hellgate:London forum but thought this was important general news to this community.
http://www.warcry.com/news/view/84964-Lowering-the-Flag-at-Flagship-Studios
Several sites are reporting that Flagship has laid off "nearly everyone:
Hanibisoft of Korea will probably be taking over.
Comments
Already?
That sucks. It seems like they just started making games. From the videos that I saw it looked like they have expanded quite a bit.
Didn't they do some wierd deal with a bank putting the studio up as collateral? Did that have any part in this?
I wonder what will become of Mythic.
this does not suprise me in the slightest. Not at all.
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
You mean Mythos? Trust me, as someone from the beta I can assure you that they were not having a very good success with developing Mythos. Constant change of direction, no cohesive design plot, no story to speak of, and was basically a weak Diablo wannabe. With the same stupid ass "humor" that they thought worked so well in Hellgate: London.
Nor me.
Although I do wonder what took so long for this crap dev to fizzle out.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact they can no longer use the "From the creators of Diablo" schtick now that Blizzard has shown off Diablo 3 and it's easy to see who the "real" developers of Diablo are?
Just confirms what I said all along: the hacks at Flagship worked for Blizzard North at the time Diablo 1 and/or 2 were created, but they were not the creative talents behind the games.
Hell, if I was at Blizzard North at that time and said to a dev "Hey, can you make his cape green?" and that dev said "Sure." and made it green, I guess I could take credit for helping develop Diablo.
That's what Flagship did. They were the peons watching the real devs work and then tried to base a company off the real devs reputation.
Already?
Have you ever played this turd?
Its right up there with Tabula Rasa
(zorvan should like that comparison)
Already?
Have you ever played this turd?
Its right up there with Tabula Rasa
(zorvan should like that comparison)
Heh, I just might have to give TR a slightly higher score on the shit-meter. But after all is said and done, it's still the shit-meter.
I confess I am not surprised much myself. I wonder what the implications for Hellgate will be now that a Korean company is taking over.
And weren't they about to release some big patch or update?
I feel bad for anyone that bought a lifeftime membership.
You mean Mythos? Trust me, as someone from the beta I can assure you that they were not having a very good success with developing Mythos. Constant change of direction, no cohesive design plot, no story to speak of, and was basically a weak Diablo wannabe. With the same stupid ass "humor" that they thought worked so well in Hellgate: London.
Nor me.
Although I do wonder what took so long for this crap dev to fizzle out.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact they can no longer use the "From the creators of Diablo" schtick now that Blizzard has shown off Diablo 3 and it's easy to see who the "real" developers of Diablo are?
Just confirms what I said all along: the hacks at Flagship worked for Blizzard North at the time Diablo 1 and/or 2 were created, but they were not the creative talents behind the games.
Hell, if I was at Blizzard North at that time and said to a dev "Hey, can you make his cape green?" and that dev said "Sure." and made it green, I guess I could take credit for helping develop Diablo.
That's what Flagship did. They were the peons watching the real devs work and then tried to base a company off the real devs reputation.
I agree with what you have said about Flagship except for one thing.
The founders and creator of Diablo 1 and Condor Games were the founders of Flagship Studios.
Blizzard North (aka Condor Games which had created all of the Diablo Games prior to number 3) was founded by the same people that founded Flagship Studios.
War Beta Tester
Being in the minority and thinking Diablo and diablo like games are boring, I must say I thought Hellgate was a nice improvement on the tired old gameplay. Diablo 3 has no new innovations except new graphics, thats blizzard for yah, but I guess their fans have no standards anyways.
Ok,
" Flagship Studios (makers of Hellgate:London) Closing down ",
should read as,
" Flagship Studios (makers of Hellgate:London) some people say it might be Closing down! "
Because, I followed the links provided, first I went to Warcry website,
who stated that there reporting rumours, " new rumours must suffice " and that there story comes from gamasutra, so I followed the link and went to the gamasutra website, these guys say,
" Gamasutra has received confirmation from a Flagship Studios representative that the Hellgate: London developer has seen significant staff cuts. " that's interesting, do tell us more, so I read on," This morning, Gamasutra obtained information from a source close to the company* indicating that staff at both the Flagship development team as well as online services subsidiary Ping0 were let go. Both companies operate out of the same building. " keep in mind companies retrench, let go and re-hire people all the time, so nuth'n new here, they go on to say," Flagship declined to go into further detail about the layoffs, beyond stating that there was truth to the reports " about what, we still don't really know yet, the gamasutra site goes on to tell us about what co-publisher Electronic Arts has to say, they also tell us what flagship did last month about different situation, involving a letter by David Brevik's,( I think I did read this at the time)
they go on to quote there Second close source** to flagship indicated to Gamasutra that even at the time of such outward confidence, the company was going through internal turbulence.
Still haven't read anything on gamasutra's website about Flagship CLOSING DOWN, but wait there's an update," UPDATE: Fan site Hellgate Guru has translated a Korean news report indicating that Hellgate: London's publisher in the region, HanbitSoft, "...is taking full control over the Hellgate: London intellectual property from Flagship Studios," and intends to continue the game using in-house staff."
The only thing on gamasutra's website, where Flagship has officially responded with direct comments is,( to the HanbitSoft story), "This story is an outright lie. We have no idea where they are getting their information from and have asked legal counsel to pursue the issue... We are mystified by Hanbitsoft’s conclusions and any attempt to take over the IP will be met with a strong and swift response."
So I still have not seen where they state that Flagship studios is closing down and Hanbitsoft has totally taken over and now runs everything, it's true there is an argument between flagship and hanbitsoft over who owns what, I haven't read anything here or there that say that hellgate: London will lose or cut it's development fund or even lose them all together, if anything it looks like there arguing over who will keep funding the games development and again, no where do they say hellgate will close or even flagship for that matter.
*sorry, refresh me here, a source close to the company and confirmation from a Flagship Studios representative are these the same things? and who's this source close to the company?,(maybe it the janitor)
** " Source's say! " this comment is the same as saying," some people say...." and we all just luv it when a TV news services use this one, I mean you can't get more accurate than," some people say..."
So if you want to call me a fanboi, that's up to you, my opinion of this game is my own as is yours, but considering this thread was about Flagship closing down,( if this is your wish or not) it is not, nor has anyone said so from any of these links.
Well, HanbitSoft does have a bit of mmo publishing experience with some of the best developers in Korea under them. They also have a shitload of money since they were the company to publish Starcraft in Korea. Hellgate: London could be in for some improving, in 3~6 months time.
kotaku.com/5024558/flagship-sunk-whos-in-charge-of-hellgate
"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"...
"[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."
yep I followed your link, this page uses pretty much the same sources as the other link you listed, as for the quoted paragraph it's from HanbitSoft's Attorneys, which is what you would expect him to say.
I think this is the link you should have posted;
http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/39866/Flagship-Studios-Closure-Confirmed-All-Staff-Fired-All-I-P-Lost
It is actually quoting one of the staff members of flagship studios.
Sometimes you just have to dive that arm deeper into the cr*p pile and dig up a more solid piece.
Dang!.. there goes one of my favorite games.
Unlucky Flagship :P
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