Flagship going under?
Well color me surprised. The rumor on the internet says that Flagship went under this last week. Which puts Hellgate: London in serious jeopardy.
Hellgate has had a very troubled history. And the fact that they appeared to focus more on the pay model of the game than the actual development caused serious concerns. So much so that I never bought the game, despite drooling over the fact that I might get my Diablo-esque fix.
As Bill Harris (Dubious Quality) said back in 2007, “Sometimes, you just get a good vibe about an upcoming game. BioShock had a good vibe before it was released. Mass Effect has a good vibe. Rock Band has a good vibe.
Then there’s Hellgate: London. Bad vibe.
What’s interesting about Hellgate is that the bad vibe doesn’t come from the game itself, necessarily, but it seems that the developers have spent more time thinking about the revenue models than the game”
Seems like he might have been on to something there.
This is one of my biggest “fears” of the MMO / online / downloadable content monster that’s been created. If the company goes under all your time and money is totally gone. When you rely on a company’s servers to play the game, when those servers close that’s it. No more game.
For me that risk isn’t worth it. I don’t want to waste my money (and more importantly my time) on something I can’t control. There are better options out there. And right now I’m very happy I didn’t buy Hellgate.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Finally, a response from Flagship Studios! Limited details are provided, but at least it’s something. I’m just glad to hear any kind of a response. Though it does seem changes are on the way for “all” that subscriber content. If FSS does end up, long-term, continuing to provide/own Hellgate, it’s just a waiting game to see what changes are made with the profit model.
While the announcements from HanbitSoft, couple days ago, flat out says, they’re going to be making their own content for Hellgate / own the IP. Which may or may not have something directly due to all the layoffs at FSS. What would be really nice, and possibly even win/win for anyone, is if FSS and HanabitSoft both retained (or gained) rights to the point of each being able to take the game in different directions and actually so. Could only be a lesser chance of if two very different flavors of HGL came out. Hellgate: London Asia and Hellgate: London (FSS). Would be fitting what with HGL being the bastard son of a Roguelike.
http://www.flagshipped.com