Originally posted by Lydon

It's always a sad day when a developer closes its doors.

  Hellgate will die, and Mythos with it. Should Mythos actually not die it will be transformed into little more then another Asian grindfest requiring lots of item store purchases.

  To those trolling here laughing in glee that many lost their jobs, and that a company tried but failed what can i say your pretty sad. One less game developer, means less games, and no it doesn't mean other developers will become better or make more free games for you all, it just means less and less people will try or invest in the genre. Hope you all enjoy WoW because at this rate it, and its clones will be the only thing left. 

It is funny, I see comments all the time how the original Diablo II team left blizzard so Diablo III won't be as good.  Yet look what this team did by themselves, they produced a very mediocre copy of what Diablo II was almost 10 years later.   Needless to say, looks like the group was another of those one hit wonders.

http://forums.hellgatelondon.com/showthread.php?p=1064155#post1064155

Quote from the above link:

Hello,
I would like to respond to some of the recent coverage that Flagship Studios has received as a result of the publication of Guy Somberg's blog.

Everyone has good days and bad days. Guy was having a bad day. It was his friend's last day of internship and he found out another friend was thinking of leaving. He vented, exaggerated, and posted information that was inaccurate.

We will be the first to admit that Hellgate: London did launch with some problems. The game would certainly have benefited from a couple more months in the oven, but as an independent developer we didn't have the ability to delay our ship date. It can be difficult to stand by and see something that you put your heart and soul into, week in and week out, get the initial reception Hellgate got. It can put a strain on any developer and some days it can get to you. Thankfully, after some very hard work by all the people here, including Guy, the game is much better now and we believe in the future of Hellgate.

Both our studios are currently fully staffed, with our San Francisco studio working on ongoing content for Hellgate: London and our Seattle studio working on our free-to-play MMORPG, Mythos, which should go into open beta within the next couple months. In total, we have over 100 employees working for both studios. As is typical in the industry, after a game is released some people naturally want to work on something else and they leave the company to do so. But in total we have had less than 10% turn-over and have rehired for all needed positions.

All our Directors and Founders are still working at Flagship, and all of them are working on Hellgate: London or Mythos. The team size for Hellgate is as big now as when we shipped. We are putting all of our efforts into these projects and I think it will show in the upcoming Hellgate Abyss Chronicles.

Sincerely,
David Brevik
CVO
Flagship Studios

Originally posted by Soldarith

http://forums.hellgatelondon.com/showthread.php?p=1064155#post1064155

that link is from a month ago -- June 11th

None of this is official. Although FSS haven't come out with an official response (which means all this is can be true, and no matter what something fishy is going on), all the sites that claim FSS has gone down all pretty much link to eachother, leading back to one post from VE3D that states Taylor Balbi (FSS Community Manager) told VE3D that the studio closed. Taylor Balbi, on the other hand, states that he never talked to VE3D.

The hellgate official forums are obviously on fire, but continuous playful postings from Forum Manager Scapes and Ping0 official Tiggs seem to be sending good vibes (or deceptive vibes) to the players. An official statement is said to be released monday.

Hmm too bad this game was a fun lil shooter game, with maybe too much ambition. Its weird tho because hgl was supposedly selling pretty good in japan.

The game was a good idea but poorly executed, missing many standard features at launch (mail, auction house, organized PvP). The game gave few reasons to actually group so it felt like playing a single-player game online.

I see rumblings they may form a new company within the next month, and if they do I hope they learn from their mistakes.

Originally posted by JustBe

Why does this game have it's own forum? it's not a mmorpg and it's now closed.

I seize your "closed" argument and throw you a bone... go ask the folks at Guild Wars and Phantasy Star Universe, then report your findings.

As of Jul 15, the official post was:

San Francisco, CA (July 14, 2008) -- Flagship Studios has announced today that despite rumors to the contrary, the company is still operating.

“It is with deep regret that I must announce that Flagship Studios has laid off most employees. However, the core management and founding team members are still at Flagship.” said Bill Roper, CEO of Flagship Studios. “The past five years have been an incredible experience for us, but unfortunately, we couldn’t sustain the size of the company any longer.”

Flagship Studios owns the rights to all its technology and IP, including Hellgate: London and Mythos. Due to the current situation, Flagship will not be taking any new subscribers for Hellgate: London, and all current subscriptions will not be billed.

Take what you will from that.

Diablo 3 is coming out.

What investor in his right mind is going to continue funding Mythos.

Originally posted by Souldrainer

I feel really bad for the lifetime subscribers who spent $210 for a collector's copy of the game and their account.

 But people should have watched out, FSS wasn't a big dev so...I'm happy I never bought Hl

Originally posted by SwampRob

As of Jul 15, the official post was:

San Francisco, CA (July 14, 2008) -- Flagship Studios has announced today that despite rumors to the contrary, the company is still operating.

“It is with deep regret that I must announce that Flagship Studios has laid off most employees. However, the core management and founding team members are still at Flagship.” said Bill Roper, CEO of Flagship Studios. “The past five years have been an incredible experience for us, but unfortunately, we couldn’t sustain the size of the company any longer.”

Flagship Studios owns the rights to all its technology and IP, including Hellgate: London and Mythos. Due to the current situation, Flagship will not be taking any new subscribers for Hellgate: London, and all current subscriptions will not be billed.

 

Take what you will from that.

Oops Bill - http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2008/08/15/flagship-coo-studio-is-officially-shut-down

Glad I played before making the decision whether or not to sub.  The game had potential but it was rushed, mismanaged, and the business model was crap.

I'm happy with that decision. That was retarded to release a game at the version .5 and piss off their customers by forcing them to testing their buggy shits. As a game tester, I really wanted to see Flagship Studios dying in a fire. Especially after dropping 80$ for the game on it's release.

Bye Bye Flagship Studios!

dead thread.... move along

Originally posted by Lydon

It's always a sad day when a developer closes its doors.

Not if the developer stinks, and this game with its developer, stinks.  Advertising this game as an MMO and actually charging a monthly fee is robbery in itself.  They get no sympathy from me.  Bad business deserves this outcome.

I was in the closed Beta but I never subbed.

I saw pretty clearly that the Devs were not listening to their fanbase, The majority of which were D2 vets with a very good understanding of this genre.

It's too bad because I very much wanted this game to be one I could call home.

But I saw the writing on the wall B4 this game even hit the shelves, it was doomed.

Released too early.

Didn't buy the game....I was slow getting around to it.   Guess I won't now.