GamingShogun has received an official response from Flagship denying the stories of Hellgate's being taken over by HanbitSoft:

'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...."
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"In breaking news, Korean news website TheGames.co.kr reports that HanbitSoft is taking full control over the Hellgate: London intellectual property from Flagship Studios."
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TVG writes:Flagship Studios has defended Hellgate: London following a damning blog post from a Programmer on the project.
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Hellgate: London developer Flagship Studios has countered comments made by one of its own staffers that suggested a mass exodus of employees from the studio.Guy Somberg, a programmer at Flagship, said in a recent post on his personal blog that "People are leaving. In droves, they're leaving" the company.But Flagship on Wednesday swatted away Somberg's comments, which circulated the Web this week."Everyone has good days ... » Read More

VG247: Talking on his blog, Flagship audio and gameplay programmer Guy Somberg has admitted that the Hellgate studio has something of a leakage issue.

"So why is work depressing? The reason is that people are leaving. In droves, they're leaving," he said. "We've had programmers, accountants, HR people, and artists leave. The founders are all still around, but they've been floating away from Hellgate to work on various other projects. The only one still actively on Hellgate is Tyler, but Tyler's not programming anymore; he spends all of his time on management activities."
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Some troubling news has arrived from inside Flagship Studios, the company created from ex-Blizzard employees mostly known for creating the Diablo games and the developers of Hellgate: London and Mythos. It seems that the employees are leaving the company in droves, and the company could be in trouble. A personal blog post of one of the "lead" programmers revealed this (but has been deleted since). The blog post reveals a lot of the current status "from the inside".
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Hellgate: IncGamers report that Hanbitsoft founder, Kim Young-man, is selling off a large number of his Hanbitsoft shares, and that the company has had big losses recently, possibly due to the bad Hellgate: London reception in Korea.
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Flagship Studios has today announced that its action role-playing game Hellgate: London has become the most successful online video game launch of the past three years, with over one million accounts registered during the first two weeks of its open beta test.

Following the launch of the open beta on January 15 the game became the ninth most played online game, the fifth most popular RPG and the most popular online beta game in PC Cafes.
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Developer Flagship (Hellgate: London, Mythos) has announced that it has closed a new deal with Comerica Bank to fund the company using an "independent film financing model as its basis" that will see the company continuing to create content without publisher investment.

The company has created a new multi-million dollar facility with the bank, "backed by the sale and distribution rights to Flagship's game franchise Hellgate: London."
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From the official Hellgate: London site:

"This patch is has some major skill changes, a few vital balance tweaks, some pesky bug fixes, and a highly-requested new feature.

First and foremost is the introduction of our in-game mail system. This is something that we know is of vital interest to our community, and is the foundation for our consignment / auction house system. Players can not only send and receive messages with anyone in the game, but they can also attach Palladium and items to their mail. This makes getting items from one character to another ¿ even your own ¿ much simpler and more convenient. And while you need to be in a Station to attach or receive items and Palladium, you can read your messages anywhere, anytime."
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"I think that people had incredibly high expectations that we simply didn't meet", Flagship boss Bill Roper has admitted in an interview with PC Zone on Hellgate: London.

Looking back the RPG was surrounded by hefty anticipation due to it hailing from the team responsible for the Diablo series, but it ended up experiencing a rocky launch last year, blighted by major bugs.
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Hellgate: London is an immersive first-person perspective RPG with a completely randomized world that offers a unique experience every time you play, introducing a demon-ridden place where the last survivors of the human race must meld science and magic to survive. Shortly after the recent v1.0/Stonehenge patch, Flagship is already working on the next v1.1 update.
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After the horrible launch in the US, Europe, and Southeast Asia, Hellgate has been very well received in Korea. After the big release event a week ago, GameMeca reports that Hellgate is the 6th most popular PC Bunk games right now. This type of playing is usually paid by the hour, instead of buying the whole game, so the popularity of the game comes from what people think, rather than advertisement or hype.
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Mon, 01/21/2008

The official Hellgate: London website has posted up word that subscribing via PayPal and PayByCash is now possible.

The website notice also announces that the Founder's Club offer, which gives folks a lifetime subscription to Hellgate: London, will end on Jan. 31.
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Via WorthPlaying:

"Hellgate: London is an immersive first-person perspective RPG with a completely randomized world that offers a unique experience every time you play, introducing a demon-ridden place where the last survivors of the human race must meld science and magic to survive. Flagship will roll out the Stonehenge expansion on Monday, adding new environments, new demons and tons of phat loot."
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There has been rumours about of a "Cow level" hidden in Hellgate: London on some german fansite. This is a reference to the Diablo 2 cow level that Blizzard created after much debate on wether a cow level did exist in the original Diablo game or not. Two screenshots has been brought forward to prove the cow level in Hellgate: London.
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Apparently Korea has their own closed beta test and many find it to be a fun and satisfying game to play. The distribution of the game is handled by Hanbitsoft, and incidentally its logo also appears on the SEA boxed set version.

"Gamers had to gauge the game according to five criteria - graphic, addiction, action, fun and sound. Graphic scored the highest at 91% while Sound scored the lowest at 86.2%.

It seems that the Koreans are quite in love with Hellgate: London. The game was given an average user rating of 89.2 points - that's a very decent store given that StarCraft is the national sport there."
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Nov 20, 2007 A number of new features and a wealth of fixes and tweaks are set to hit RPG Hellgate: London today in Patch 0.5 for the game. "A lot of work has been done on the chat interface. This is step one in our overhaul of the system, but we think you'll find it more user-friendly and less intrusive. We've also given everyone 24 character slots to encourage playing with different builds and classes", a post from the Hellgate team on the official website reads. "The game is also more ... » Read More

The latest videogame sales data released for Germany and Spain shows Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare making a strong debut.

In Germany, Activision's first-person shooter captured the top three spots, with the PC version at number one, followed by the Xbox 360 version and the PS3 version in at number three

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was slightly less popular in Spain, but still managed to capture three of the top ten spots. The PS3 version debuted at number three, followed by the Xbox 360 version at number four and the PC version at number eight.

Germany:

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC)
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360)
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3)
4. Hellgate: London (PC)
5. WWE Smackdown! vs. Raw 2008 (PS2)
6. Fussball Manager 2008 (PC)
7. Singstar: Apres Ski (PS2)
8. Dr. Kawashima's Gehirn-Jogging (DS)
9. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
10. Singstar: Rock Ballads (PS2)

Spain:

1. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS2)
2. WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2008 (PS2)
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3)
4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360)
5. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (PS2)
6. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS3)
7. WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2008 (PS3)
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC)
9. WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2008 (PSP)
10. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
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Most MMO players know the story of IGE and Affinity Media by now, (the owners of WoWhead, Allakhazam, Thottbot and WoWinterface), and their relationship. A really interesting article popped up on Radar Online today which highlights some of the dodgy characters that are involved in the Affinity Media business which had claimed to have no involvement with IGE. Brock Pierce who is an advisor and a board member of Affinity Media, is highlighted in the above article and I have to say there's some pretty unsavoury stuff here pointing at child abuse. This has been brought up before regarding Brock Pierce who has apparently denied charges but there are filed legal cases which he has tried to settle.

In related news, there has been paperwork filed this week where IGE admits that it is Affinity Media (see additional link). Not that anyone doubted it. Next time you hit up an Affinity Media site, just think about who you are supporting and who's pockets your traffic is lining with cash.
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