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Flagship (Studios) sinks
Henroid
Mexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
Mexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
An article went up on 1up.com yesterday reporting that Flagship Studios was going through some heavy staff cuts.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3168669
And today, rumors are floating around that Flagship Studios closed its doors today, July 12th. The two IP's it owned, Hellgate: London and the unfinished Mythos are now in the hands of other companies, and the three execs apparently paid out of their pockets to pay the employees for another 30 days of work.
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53581
So, while a lot of people here were saying that Hellgate: London was a huge letdown, I'm curious about what the possible loss of Mythos could mean.
Edit - A much better article, which confirms the closure.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3168669
And today, rumors are floating around that Flagship Studios closed its doors today, July 12th. The two IP's it owned, Hellgate: London and the unfinished Mythos are now in the hands of other companies, and the three execs apparently paid out of their pockets to pay the employees for another 30 days of work.
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53581
So, while a lot of people here were saying that Hellgate: London was a huge letdown, I'm curious about what the possible loss of Mythos could mean.
Edit - A much better article, which confirms the closure.
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.
Word of the studio closure reached Korean distributor HanbitSoft, leading to the release of a statement regarding intellectual property control and the subsequent clarification by their American lawyers that included the following sentence: "It is unfortunate that Flagship turned down additional investments HanbitSoft offered to make that would have allowed it to keep its doors open."
As also referenced in the legal release, HanbitSoft hopes to independently continue development of Mythos, to which it owns the rights thanks to a loan agreement enacted with Flagship. Comerica now owns the Hellgate: London rights through a similar loan agreement, and will likely continue Asian development with HanbitSoft. As for English-language releases of the two games, it is possible that the Asian companies would continue development, though in the case of Hellgate: London it is unlikely (Mythos has a far better business model and is attracting extremely positive press). Alternatively, the rights may be sold to Electronic Arts or other interested parties.
In summary, Flagship's well is dry, all intellectual property has been lost, all staff fired, and the studio closed. It truly is the end of the line.
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Sucks, their games were playable.
This is what happens when your entire business model is woven around essentially making the games that another company makes better.
Wierd, and just as diablo 3 is announced. Burned.
Mythos will probably be developed for the Asian region, and outside that it might be kinda half-assed. I'm not sure, I never really looked at the game or tried to figure out much about it.
I really hope they do something for us lifetime subscription holders.
Like burn in hell for an eternity to make up for it?
I don't see a reason to jump to that conclusion just yet. The IPs are now in other parties' hands, to do as they see fit. And without the cost of making the game in the first place to worry about, whoever has it can just do basic maintenance and get free money for a few years.
I don't know how it can ever be a good thing when a studio closes down.
Hellgate was a mess at times, but it had some good ideas and I quite enjoyed playing it for the brief time I did so.
Anyone trying to charge for Diablo esque gameplay eventually feels it.
PSO:E2 and beyond felt it.
Not only that but this game designer commited the cardinal sin of game making. They kept talking about how awesome their game was and then unleashed it upon the world uncomplete. They pulled a Daikatana.
At least it didn't cost me monthly to play Daikatana.
It didn't cost you money to play Hellgate either though
That would have been only a minor comedy if not for the state the game shipped in. That's what really sunk this game.
It should have come out now, instead of back then. It might have had a chance. Maybe. But I guess the financials weren't in place for such a thing.
I guarantee the game will not have service within 90 days. No one will want to pay to keep this game up.
That other game still has a chance.
I mean, if people will play this http://global.4story.com/introduction/features/4story.asp people will play anything
Calling it a mess at times would be very charitable. I used to be little pissed at Flagship for wasting $60 on that game, but thankfully I don't care anymore.
There was a lot of potential at the core of Hellgate, but layers of poor game design and bad coding did it in. Also, those bits of dialog that were supposed to be "funny" still make me cringe.
Never did try Mythos, though.
Pushing back release dates isn't a bad thing.
Though, Flagship was also trying to do too much than they could. I guess this goes to show them they took Blizzard for granted. Especially now after WoW and the profit margin. Blizzard has zero issues funding their projects now.
Since the VE3D article's credibility is about as reliable as (insert name of forumer who's extremely unreliable here), since his "source" has said that he hasn't ever talked to the reporter.
I'm waiting on something actually official.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
Be thankful, the game is pretty bad. I'm in the alpha (or, is it a beta? I don't remember), and it's so slow, shallow, and ugly it's hard to have fun with.
Wow, I really don't think we are playing the same game, Mythos is a fun game and looks pretty good what it is
I definitely recommend for everyone to try it
Yeah, I'm going to have to side with mythos. I haven't played to that high of a level, but it's great for what it is so far
I guess it's fine as a time-sink, but I think D2 was still better, and that's kind of weird considering how long it's been since D2 was released.
Isn't that kinda like saying "GTAIV is a better game in every capacity than the failure that was Crackdown?"
Both games are good, but you're comparing Diablo 2 to games that are similar, regardless of how amazing D2 was. Yea, they set themselves up for it, but still.. Diablo 2.
The game that still has a "Game On" thread over 8 years after its release.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
For some reason.
Honestly, I can't play D2 anymore (bought a copy off the new Blizzard store, played it for ten minutes, and havn't touched it since), especially after playing Titan Quest. It definitely hasn't aged gracefully.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
Graphically, no... but the gameplay is still as solid as it ever was. Titan Quest was fantastic, however, and I was sad to see Ironlore go under.
Which, by the way, is a perfect example. Titan Quest managed to best D2 in just about every way, and yet Ironlore was forced to shut down.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
I've been playing it recently a long with a ton others. Opinions opinions lol
Graphics suck today, but they werent even good back then. I don't really care one way or another, but the gameplay is still there and thats all that matters.
What are you talking about? Your mom has plenty of appeal to the masses. :P
I really want to know what happens to my lifetime subscription though. Any official word on that front?
"Go up, thou bald head." -2 Kings 2:23
Well to be fair it still is 100x the game Titan Quest is
I bought Titan Quest Gold off steam and played it for a while but went back to D2 because Titan Quest just was missing something that D2 has.
not yet but hopefully soon
High chances you are screwed...
Unless some gaming company buys over HGL...