Two studios: Flagship Studios, the developer behind Hellgate: London; and Ping0, which manages the digital infrastructure behind Flagsip's titles, have made all staff redundant and shut up shop. The studios apparently closed their doors on Saturday.
No official reason has been given as to why the companies have closed. That said, a forum poster on somethingawful claiming to be a former staff member of Ping0 has offered some explanation. GLC wrote, "Flagship bit off way more than they could chew and made a lot of development and structural mistakes in how they went about things. They had a lot of big dreamers on staff, but not enough nitty-gritty people who knew how to get poo poo done. It sucks, but that's life I guess."
The poster also stated that staff received payment directly from the pockets of Flagship's leadership. "I didn't always agree with the decisions of the leadership, but it doesn't surprise me at all to hear that three of them (probably Roper and the Schaeffers) dug into their own pockets to pay people. Nothing about them, Max Schaeffer in particular, ever made me think they were less than standup guys", GLC wrote.
The future of Hellgate: London, which offered a subscription-based online service, is uncertain in the West. Texas-based Comerica Bank, which delivered finance to Hellgate: London earlier in the year, now apparently owns the rights.
Mythos, a free-to-play RPG that was being worked on over at Flagship, will reportedly be picked up by Korea-based Hanbit Soft, which has worked with Flagship to localise its titles. It also looks like Hanbit Soft will support the localised Korean version of Hellgate: London.
Sources: Voodoo Extreme, somethingawful forum
No official reason has been given as to why the companies have closed. That said, a forum poster on somethingawful claiming to be a former staff member of Ping0 has offered some explanation. GLC wrote, "Flagship bit off way more than they could chew and made a lot of development and structural mistakes in how they went about things. They had a lot of big dreamers on staff, but not enough nitty-gritty people who knew how to get poo poo done. It sucks, but that's life I guess."
The poster also stated that staff received payment directly from the pockets of Flagship's leadership. "I didn't always agree with the decisions of the leadership, but it doesn't surprise me at all to hear that three of them (probably Roper and the Schaeffers) dug into their own pockets to pay people. Nothing about them, Max Schaeffer in particular, ever made me think they were less than standup guys", GLC wrote.
The future of Hellgate: London, which offered a subscription-based online service, is uncertain in the West. Texas-based Comerica Bank, which delivered finance to Hellgate: London earlier in the year, now apparently owns the rights.
Mythos, a free-to-play RPG that was being worked on over at Flagship, will reportedly be picked up by Korea-based Hanbit Soft, which has worked with Flagship to localise its titles. It also looks like Hanbit Soft will support the localised Korean version of Hellgate: London.
Sources: Voodoo Extreme, somethingawful forum
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