Thanks GL - me too. Today on The Rundown we have news on DC Universe Online, the release of the Resident Evil 5 demo, the rumored return of Hellgate London, TIGA’s gift to UK developers looking to go to GDC in March and a ton of other news. Jump in after the break.
Flagship Studio founder Bill Roper has found a new home: Cryptic Studios. The man behind Hellgate: London will help Cryptic Studios create its upcoming super hero MMO title, Champions Online. Forgive us if we are a little bit skeptical on why this is a good move on Cryptic Studios’ part, given the abysmal failure of Roper’s last project. Cryptic is also working on a Star Trek MMO, in case you didn’t know.
Roper will focus on adapting the Champions pen and paper role-playing game into the MMO-space, though I’m pretty sure that Cryptic Studios has a capable staff of developers already in place to handle that.
Not all of roper’s past accomplishments have been as soul crushing as Hellgate London: while at Blizzard Roper helped push out the hits Starcraft and Warcraft. I hope this opportunity will put him back on the path to creating goods quality games.
There’s some good news from Namco Bandai Games America today for subscribers of Hellgate: London: server support will continue through 2008. Namco Bandai Games America announced that it will continue to run Hellgate: London online servers through January 31, 2009. In a further gesture of support, Namco Bandai Games will provide this server support free of charge to all fans and players of the game up until the shut down date.
The company said that it “appreciates the enthusiasm of all the Hellgate: London players and looks forward to providing them with future entertainment products.”
While the company will inevitably have to close down the servers for Hellgate in North America, at least it is letting subscribers enjoy the game for free until it is put down for a final and irrevocable dirt nap.
Are Hellgate: London and Mythos coming back? According to a job listing on DICE.com and a story on Gamasutra, it would seem so. According to that report both games have been picked up by Korean publisher and developer T3 Entertainment, who plan on opening up shop in San Francisco.
Both games were put on hold after some financial trouble and massive staff layoffs at Flagship. The job listing on DICE.com mentions both games by name. The company also said that - in addition to Mythos and Hellgate: London - it is developing other games and that all of these titles would be published by HanbitSoft Inc.
Did HanbitSoft manage to hammer out a deal with Flagship or one of its investors to secure rights to both these games, or is this story another instance of HanibitSoft and its agents jumping the gun and claiming ownership of two games that they don’t have a legal right to? At this point, we don’t know, but we’ll continue to follow this story to its conclusion.
Source: Gamasutra
The very public battle between Korean publisher HanbitSoft and Flagship Studios over Mythos and Hellgate London, continues to get ugly. Talking to the Korean press, the company is threatening legal action against Flagship and its founders, which include former Blizzard heavyweight Bill Roper. The company has a publishing agreement with Flagship to publish and operate Mythos in Korea. The company told a Korean newspaper that it should have no trouble securing the Mythos intellectual property and that it will also talk to another collateral holder, who apparently owns a piece of Hellgate, about securing that property.
Hanbitsoft also went on to say that it is within its power to hand off Flagship’s IP to Korean developers in its employ, who are quite capable of completing these projects and making them even better than they are now.
If anything, this is a lesson in letting outside forces gain a controlling interest in your company. You can read some of this sage at Hellgate Guru.
SwitchBlade, the software that lets PC gamers use on Xbox 360 controller with their favorite PC games, today announced additional support for several titles. Developed by Blue Orb, the latest version of the free software features support for such titles as Half-Life 2 and Hellgate: London — as well as more refined support for World of Warcraft. This latest version of SwitchBlade shows that it is capable of handling a wide variety of game titles. The software began its life as a way for World of Warcraft players to control the MMO using and Xbox 360 controller. To further that support, Blue Orb also announced that Switchblade now supports blades (tabs in the program) for class-specific WoW schemes.
You can learn more about Switchblade and how to configure it for non-supported game titles by visiting the software’’s official site.
Flagship Studios today released details on the free Stonehenge Chronicles update for Hellgate: London, which is set to be released on or around Jan. 21. The update will add a new outside area to the game that is in stark contrast to the game’s city streets and sewers. This new area features The Caste Caves, Moloch’s Lair and The Wild. The Caste Caves unlocks four dungeons for each enemy caste, each featuring a spectral overlord that you’ll have defeat. This accomplishment unlocks Moloch’’s Lair, where the demon Moloch awaits your challenge, and his defeat promises a reward of unique items. Finally, The Wild offers three mini-raid areas that are best suited for a full party.
The update also offers some class skill tweaks, improvements to the user interface, a PVP arena and some balancing of many of the skills. If you”ve given up on Hellgate, which admittedly has had a rocky start, you may want to give the game another shot.
