Hellgate: London, Mythos in Jeopardy

Flagship Studios, the developer of the multiplayer RPGs Hellgate: London and Mythos, are entering into a sort of limbo as they enter conflict with their publisher, HanbitSoft, and have let go of most of their employees. Subscriptions to the game have been put on hold, and they have stopped accepting new customers. What this will mean for customers who purchased lifetime memberships isn't yet known. HanbitSoft executives have been sharply critical of Flagship's business practices.

The company was founded by a number of former Blizzard North executives, including Bill Roper, the current CEO of Flagship and the former director of Blizzard Entertainment. Their experience working for some of the most popular titles in PC gaming history evidently didn't translate to the new company. Hellgate: London was widely received as mediocre, despite being hyped as the next Diablo. Instead, what gamers received wa a rather mediocre third person shooter RPG hybrid with randomized maps that just seemed to lack any sort of addictive hook. Myriad technical issues also prevented the game from reaching a wider audience, as negative buzz spread throughout the internet about it.

Mythos, which was in beta before it was recently closed, had received more favorable coverage than Hellgate ever did despite being simpler and built with a lower budget, but its future is entirely in question. It's hard to continue development of a game when most of the team has been fired and the future ownership of the intellectual property is in question. Despite all the derision of their games online, it was still a moderate success despite having clearly overextended itself.