Quantcast

News

Flagship Down

By Reggie Carolipio on Saturday, July 12, 2008 at 11:53 PM EST  

Flagship Studios

Following Friday’s reports from Gamasutra, VE3D, and fansite, Hellgate Guru, confirmation that the developer of Hellgate: London has closed its doors has now been reported by VE3D.

Both the studio and Ping0, who was responsible for work concerning the online portion of Hellgate: London, have been effectively shuttered today which Flagship Community Manager, Taylor Balbi, has reportedly revealed to VE3D. Balbi has also reported “that three of the studio’s top brass dug into their own pockets to provide 30 days of pay to all employees.” However, Balbi has also gone on to deny being the source of the report on the official Hellgate: London forums.

According to the articles, Hanbitsoft, the Korean distributor for Hellgate: London in Asia as well as co-owner of the IP, had stated on Friday that they hope to continue development work on Mythos to which they own the rights as loan collateral. Comerica, another secured lender, apparently owns the Hellgate IP as their collateral, leaving Flagship with nothing.

Hanbitsoft’s notice to VE3D concerning the status of both properties is as follows:

Please understand that the facts are (1) HanbitSoft is an exclusive licensee of both Hellgate and Mythos in Asia, with rights to sublicense the games; (2) in addition, HanbitSoft is a secured creditor who has been pledged the Mythos (but not the Hellgate) intellectual property as collateral for a loan; (3) Comerica, another secured lender, has been pledged the Hellgate intellectual property as its collateral for a loan; (4) Flagship Studios does not currently own the intellectual properties to either game, which are held in separate companies subject to the security interests of lenders, and Flagship Studios’ interest in those companies is also pledged to its lenders; (5) it 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.

Fans on the Hellgate: London forums are keeping a close watch on events as they unfold, reporting that several notable staff members have already updated their resumes on linkedin.com with their experiences at both Flagship and Ping0 listed as past employment.

An official statement is expected soon.

Related Stories

Comments

One Response to “Flagship Down”

  1. Flagshipped.com on July 13th, 2008 9:03 am

    Looks like dark days ahead for Hellgate: London players. Though nothing is certain until the official word and IP ownership is decided if a legal battle ends up coming into play.

    http://www.flagshipped.com

Leave a Reply