After the collapse of Flagship Studios in late 2008, the company’s pseudo-MMOG Hellgate: London had its servers shutdown by Namco-Bandai in February 2009. HanbitSoft, the game’s Korean publisher, continued to run the game in Korea under the free-to-play model, later purchasing the intellectual property outright.
Shortly after the acquisition, HanbitSoft rechristened the title with an apt name, Hellgate: Resurrection, and promised to re-launch the title internationally. HanbitSoft itself was then purchased by T3 Entertainment, who assured players that the game would still be returning. Going so far as to promise its own development power to create an expansion, Hellgate: Tokyo.
Now you’re caught up on the situation of Bill Roper’s gig before Champions Online.
/me wipes brow
HanbitSoft announced a few days ago that Hellgate: Resurrection is still coming to North America, Europe and Japan, but a release in China and Southeast Asia are the first targets. Hellgate: Resurrection continues to be F2P in Korea, and it’s likely that the game will remain that way for its upcoming re-releases.
In case you are wondering, HanbitSoft also owns Mythos, Flagship Studios’ other project.
I really enjoyed my time in the Mythos beta as well as HGL (despite its countless flaws it was still fun). I would gladly welcome both games back to the US.
Others have asked the question about lifetime subscriptions… Personally I doubt they will be honored, but would be a nice gesture if they did, cant see it costing them that much anyway.
Like Qix I was a big fan of both Mythos and HGL. I think that many of the improvements are going to refresh the game for older players. Even though it’s a ‘resurrection’, HG:L’s reputation is going to attract many new players as well.
I liked HGL despite all it’s short commings and Mythos also look good so I’m looking forward to both coming back.