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spajdr
Moderator
3400 Posts |
 Posted - 12/07/2008 : 10:02:12
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Hellgate Developers Made Redundant, Korean Distributor Takes Control
Jul 11, 2008 at 11:00 PM - Andrew Burnes - 32 Comments
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.
http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/39851/Hellgate-Developers-Made-Redundant-Korean-Distributor-Takes-Control
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nekrotyrael
Senior Member
3896 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2008 : 14:12:37
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| Who cares? |
RL: LVL 1 S/S/S
AO: Ineea, Airashii, Nekrotyrael, Nanorexia
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spajdr
Moderator
3400 Posts |
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Shatteren
Senior Member
2735 Posts |
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Azkaban
Moderator
1990 Posts |
Posted - 13/07/2008 : 11:19:38
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| hele ty propadáku. Porad mi nějaku hru. Už mě svrbí prsty na návrat do WoW pomalu:) |
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Shatteren
Senior Member
2735 Posts |
Posted - 13/07/2008 : 15:19:04
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Tezko ti poradit, jestli chces nejakej relax... hral jsi Titan Quest? Neco na zpusob Diabla 2 a trosku i 3, ale ovsem bez Blood / Gore effectu.
No jinak proste neni absolutne co hrat  Jestli chces nejakej SP, tak treba nachvili Gothic 3, jestli nejakou bezhlavou rubacku taky na 2-3 dny, tak treba Loki  |
REVOLUTION
https://www.blitzunion.com/video
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Azkaban
Moderator
1990 Posts |
Posted - 13/07/2008 : 16:09:31
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| právě tahám WoW :D nemohl jsem si pomoc.. |
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Arach
Junior Member
522 Posts |
Posted - 13/07/2008 : 22:57:42
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| devil may cry 4 : -) |
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Rodier
Moderator
4328 Posts |
Posted - 17/07/2008 : 04:42:11
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a takova to byla pekna hra.. kdyby ty kreteni udelali poradnej content.. aspon na urovni guild wars..
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First of all, who cares? Goodbye! Don't let the door hit you in the ass when you leave!
Secondly, you will still buy this. Stop fishing for attention you lonely little troll.
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brutus
Average Member
1833 Posts |
Posted - 18/07/2008 : 14:41:37
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njn skoda - podelali si to tim pochybnym modelem "plat mesicne a budes hrat stejnou hru s jinou barvou jmena"
Kdyby nechali model FTP a prodavali content packy po 5$ tak IMHO bylo uspesneji |
Darkness beyond twilight, Crimson beyond blood that flows, Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows, I pledge myself to conquer all the foes who stand, before the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hand, Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed, by the power you and I possess... DRAGON SLAVE! |
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Rodier
Moderator
4328 Posts |
Posted - 19/07/2008 : 04:49:47
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no a jak to teda je? servery uz jsou offline?
vcera jsem v krame potkal 2 typky co si zrovna hellgate koupili ;-D 3k v prdeli ;-D
snad aspon vydaj nakej ten modul pro hrani pres direct IP..
prodavat to za 500kc ala gw tak to hralo daleko vice lidi. chtit za to 3x tolik kdyz je to tak silene repetivni.. |
First of all, who cares? Goodbye! Don't let the door hit you in the ass when you leave!
Secondly, you will still buy this. Stop fishing for attention you lonely little troll.
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Pertha
Moderator
7950 Posts |
Posted - 20/07/2008 : 15:23:00
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| hellgate stoji 400 ted :) a servery normalne bezej |
Rock is overpowerd, please nerf. Paper is fine.
Yours, Scissors.
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-Mike-
Average Member
1308 Posts |
Posted - 20/07/2008 : 15:54:52
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| Rodier proste nikdy nezklame :) |
Krabice je zaklad. |
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Rodier
Moderator
4328 Posts |
Posted - 20/07/2008 : 16:22:16
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lol 400 ? to si delas kozy..fakt?
oni to koupili fakt kazdy za 1200 nebo 1500 ;-D
jinak Mythos servery down
http://worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=53954
ja myslel ze mythos jeste nevysel ne?
jak dlouho teda hellgate jeste pobezi? vsude pisou ze hanbisoft nechce podporovat EU/US verzi.. jen tu asijskou
tak za ty 400 to se podle me da ;)
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First of all, who cares? Goodbye! Don't let the door hit you in the ass when you leave!
Secondly, you will still buy this. Stop fishing for attention you lonely little troll.
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Edited by - Rodier on 20/07/2008 16:23:13 |
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Pertha
Moderator
7950 Posts |
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Rodier
Moderator
4328 Posts |
Posted - 21/07/2008 : 18:39:45
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hmm no a vi uz teda nekdo co se bude dit? :)
at zapnou podporu direct IP pro hrani pres LAN ;-D |
First of all, who cares? Goodbye! Don't let the door hit you in the ass when you leave!
Secondly, you will still buy this. Stop fishing for attention you lonely little troll.
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Kar-Chee
Junior Member
960 Posts |
Posted - 25/07/2008 : 19:08:34
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quote:
Originally posted by brutus
njn skoda - podelali si to tim pochybnym modelem "plat mesicne a budes hrat stejnou hru s jinou barvou jmena"
Kdyby nechali model FTP a prodavali content packy po 5$ tak IMHO bylo uspesneji
Nejenom modelem. I ta hra byla spatna. Skilly potrebovaly jeste tak tri mesice intenzivniho betatestingu.... |
Planetside 2, Diablo 3 |
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Shatteren
Senior Member
2735 Posts |
Posted - 25/07/2008 : 21:17:13
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| Animacky pohybu/abilit desne odflaknute. Az trapny na tehdejsi dobu. A ten stereotyp, to bylo neco teda |
REVOLUTION
https://www.blitzunion.com/video
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Bottenanna
Junior Member
511 Posts |
Posted - 30/07/2008 : 10:28:54
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| a jak se to ty kurvy zluty dozvedeli? |
Ctím a dodržuji pravidla tohoto fóra |
Edited by - Bottenanna on 30/07/2008 10:34:04 |
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