View Full Version : Flagship studios (Hellgate London) chiude !
Non ce l' hanno fatta a fare il botto con l' imho mediocre Hellgate London, di conseguenza... la soft. house chiude i battenti.
Se fossero rimasti in Blizzard i capoccia... quanto meglio avrebbero fatto...
http://www.multiplayer.it/notizia.php?id=56647
e mythos? chiude pure quello?
Riporto la notizia per intero come presentata su VoodooExtreme, fonte da cui traggono la news i ragazzi di Multiplayer.it:
A significant number of Hellgate: London, Mythos and Ping0 staff have been made redundant, Gamasutra reports. Coming mere weeks after confessions from Hellgate executives regarding the game's unfinished state, a sizeable rant by the company's sole surviving programmer, and suggestions that the staff went considerably over-budget, the end of the line draws near for Flagship. Having accepted significant amounts of venture capitalist funding, Flagship currently has no way of repaying that investment, and presumably no way of paying day-to-day bills, despite EA's claims of the game having one active million subscribers.
However, Korean distributor and co-I.P. owner HanbitSoft later clarified that the majority of those subscribers were in their territory. And because of that, the firm has today taken control of Hellgate: London with the intention to maintain and update the game using in-house staff.
HanbitSoft states that the reason it is pursuing this course of action is because “It is hard for us to accept Flagship Studios’ requests for continued support in capital and funding any longer and because Flagship was being difficult”, and because it co-owns a direct stake in the IP, it therefore “has a say in reviewing and determining any course of action to be taken with Hellgate: London.”
HanbitSoft is expected to take full control over the IP. HanbitSoft goes on to state that in doing so, it will be able to “properly manage and develop Hellgate: London into a good game with proper content”, with its own in-house team of developers.
The report further states that the online service of Hellgate: London, which started in January 15, 2008 acquired 100,000 early users within the first two weeks of operation during which time HanbitSoft earned 3 billion won (approximately 3 million USD) for the sales of Hellgate: London in Korea. However, the number of players in the game significantly declined due to the lack of general out-of-the-box content and the sparsity of ongoing content updates. Since its Open Beta launch, Hellgate: London has gone from being the 9th most played game in Korea to 52nd post-commercial launch.
Amusingly, Flagship knew nothing of the Asian revolt, and now intends to take all necessary legal action to retain control of Hellgate worldwide:
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, to “illegally take over the IP”. All right title and interest in Hellgate; London resides in Flagship Financing, LLC a wholly-owned subsidiary of Flagship Studios. We are outraged that Hanbitsoft would attempt to completely tarnish the reputation of its most vital developer. Hanbitsoft’s new management clearly does not understand the terms of its relationship with Flagship.
The saga continues, stay tuned.
Update: Hanbitsoft's lawyers got in touch:
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.
Note point five: "would have allowed it to keep its doors open."
Update #2: Subscription options have been removed from account areas, as has the ability to unsubscribe. On the forums, the lock-happy mods have yet to touch a fifty-seven page complaints thread that has spiralled out of control since the news regarding redundancies was released.
Update #3: The staff that still have a job have gone home for the weekend. However, we've been contacted by an ex-Flagship developer who has suggested that the studio is on the brink of closure and has no financial capital to fight Hanbitsoft's legal challenge.
Update #4: In a telephone conversation, Flagship's Community Manager, Evan "Scapes" Berman, refused to comment on the current situation at the studio, or whether he was still in its employ. Instead, he insisted that I direct all questions to ex-Blizzard man, Bill Roper. As of this time neither Bill Roper, Tricia Gray (Flagship's PR representative) or HanbitSoft's lawyers have responded to email inquiries.
Update #5: Chris Clarke, Flagship's European PR Manager, was also unable to provide further information in a phone conversation this morning. However, he did expect to have news in the coming days.
Update: #6: The complete closure of Flagship Studios has been confirmed.
Link alla fonte: http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/39851/Hellgate-Developers-Made-Redundant-Korean-Distributor-Takes-Control
Serio...che il gioco non fosse finito si sapeva...dopo averlo finito un paio di volte mi sono cascate le palle per i bugs e il framerate indecente in alcune situazioni...l'idea era valida ma la realizzazione un po' oscena :stordita:.
Vladimiro Bentovich
12-07-2008, 19:52
Non ce l' hanno fatta a fare il botto con l' imho mediocre Hellgate London, di conseguenza... la soft. house chiude i battenti.
Se fossero rimasti in Blizzard i capoccia... quanto meglio avrebbero fatto...
http://www.multiplayer.it/notizia.php?id=56647
Diedero le dimissioni in quanto il loro futuro era comunque a rischio a causa di manovre interne.
L'idea balzana di questo "seguito" di diablo ambientato a londra paga la triste realizzazione.
Darkless
12-07-2008, 20:26
Se dovevan campare con HL per forza che chiudono i battenti
Life bringer
13-07-2008, 01:02
Ora se lo venderanno per 2 lire, come fecero per vampire una volta che chiuse la Troika, magari lo compro :O
Stava per uscire un aggiornamento grandioso pare :|
Anche Mythos mi chiedo dove finisca ...
I didn't confirm or deny anything to anybody. There's a lot of misinformation out there about some stuff. A few news sites are reporting that I talked to VE3D about it and told them everything. That's not true, I didn't talk to VE3D about anything.... ever actually. The only person they talked to was Scapes and the only thing Scapes commented was "I like cats."
Do me a favor, don't believe anything that they are claiming flagship studios employees said until something is said officially from Flagship Studios.La cosa si fa torpida ... ne sto leggendo di tutti i colori ...
La realtà è che HL è un gioco mediocre: se avessero fatto uscire un gioco più valido... sicuramente avrebbero venduto di più.
Invece hanno fatto un mezzo mmorpg pensando di fare grana con gli abbonamenti, ed invece hanno fatto un gioco triste.
Vladimiro Bentovich
13-07-2008, 13:15
La realtà è che HL è un gioco mediocre: se avessero fatto uscire un gioco più valido... sicuramente avrebbero venduto di più.
Invece hanno fatto un mezzo mmorpg pensando di fare grana con gli abbonamenti, ed invece hanno fatto un gioco triste.
Non è un mezzo mmorpg è un seguito di diablo,parole degli sviluppatori.
Ambientato a londra :eek:
Nel futuro :eek:
Senza legame alla storia precedente :eek:
Ibridato con un sistema da fps :eek:
Quando lessi la preview che parlava di come si fossero ritrovati al tavolo e dopo esser venuta fuori l'idea avessero cercato possibili difetti e problemi.
Non ne trovarono NESSUNO,così disse.
Eroinomani inglesi valli a capire.
Ora se lo venderanno per 2 lire, come fecero per vampire una volta che chiuse la Troika, magari lo compro :O
E' già da un po' che lo vendono a 19,90, credo che nel giro di quache mese ce lo troviamo nei cestoni a 4,90.
Non è un mezzo mmorpg è un seguito di diablo,parole degli sviluppatori.
Ambientato a londra :eek:
Nel futuro :eek:
Senza legame alla storia precedente :eek:
Ibridato con un sistema da fps :eek:
Quando lessi la preview che parlava di come si fossero ritrovati al tavolo e dopo esser venuta fuori l'idea avessero cercato possibili difetti e problemi.
Non ne trovarono NESSUNO,così disse.
Eroinomani inglesi valli a capire.
Mi hai fatto morire :D:D:D.
Life bringer
13-07-2008, 14:03
E' già da un po' che lo vendono a 19,90, credo che nel giro di quache mese ce lo troviamo nei cestoni a 4,90.
Dove? Su play.com costa ancora una fortuna :eek:
Dove? Su play.com costa ancora una fortuna :eek:
MW a Roma, zona Romanina, 19.90. Ma attenzione, al secondo MW lì vicino, lo vendono ancora a 39.90.
Life bringer
13-07-2008, 14:12
Lol sto dall'altra parte della nazione :D
Lol sto dall'altra parte della nazione :D
Bè, io ho solo dato l'indicazione che in alcuni MW è venduto a 19.90 in altri no :). Se hai un MW vicino prova ^__^.
Bè, io ho solo dato l'indicazione che in alcuni MW è venduto a 19.90 in altri no :). Se hai un MW vicino prova ^__^.
Confermo anche io lo presi a quel prezzo al MW.
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