Monthly Archives: October 2008

31Oct

More Hints of Hellgate’s Comeback

Posted in HanbitSoft | Leave a comment

To follow the last few posts on the new RedBana studio working on Hellgate London, the Game Espresso Blog has been updated again with a new post. This time it is a letter from the Korean Developer of Hellgate London.

To the fans of Hellgate: London,

We wish to express our gratitude to all the fans for showing your passion and dedication to Hellgate: London.

Since acquiring the intellectual property rights, HanbitSoft Inc., the publisher and distributor of Hellgate: London in Asia, has concentrated on the development of Hellgate: London, and has received many inquiries regarding new updates. Our US development studio is currently working on an update that is to surpass “The Abyss Chronicles.” This game will be available through our Web site. We thank you once again for showing your interest and ask for your continuous support for Hellgate: London, as we hope to bring good news shortly. In the meantime, we will continue developing the world’s best game!

Sincerely,
Hellgate: London Product Manager – also a fellow user that loves to play Hellgate: London

Hopefully this means that the game might make a comeback, and hopefully they figure out some deal with the old founders to maybe enable us to at least play the core game for free (as currently this is only Act 1 and Act 2 in Korea)

27Oct

Rumours and Speculations – Hellgate: London Possibly To Live

Posted in General | Leave a comment

File this one under rumours and speculations as based on my own findings.

While we do know that FSS has died, as per yesterday’s post about Hanbiton acquiring Hellgate: London, we do know that the IP is owned by T3 now. What we didn’t know however, is what would happen to the US version of the game.

A new post went up today on the Korean Hellgate London website. It is a post talking about Halloween events and the “re-opening of the Hellgate”, however what is interesting about it, is that it has a section written in English on a usually Korean only website.

The post also sounds like they are getting ready to re-launch the game (could this mean transferring the old players over?) and the company in charge appears to be Redbana. Further research leads to the Taiwanese MMO company called Redbana, which appears to have quite some experience in gaming. Further research leads to findings of a new San Francisco office for the company, which is where Hellgate offices were located previously.

So take this news with a grain of salt, but until we have more news, there is possibility that the game might come back in some way.

Enjoy :)

27Oct

Hellgate: London Lives in Korea

Posted in HanbitSoft | Leave a comment

This was posted over at the Game Espresso Blog, which seems to be a blog dedicated to Hanbitsoft. The game will only be available to Koreans, as it is IP blocked on their website.

Many of you may heard about the sad news of Flagship’s shutdown.
But the good news is that Hellgate will go on with the new crew. HanbitSoft announced that T3 Entertainment recruited some of the best developers from Flagship Studios, Blizzard and formed a team with developers of their own. They will be carrying on where the last crew left off.
Hellgate also decided to go partly FREE in Korea. Don’t be too excited. It’s not ALL FREE.
Act1 and Act2 is open for everyone who wants to experience Hellgate, and only players who choose go on are asked to pay. HanbitSoft introduced various types of price models with a huge bargain, up to 67% OFF at most!

To add, it seems that Hanbitsoft has finally clenched the deal with Flagship Studios and bought the IPs for Hellgate and Mythos. From the same blog:

HanbitSoft now owns both Hellgate: London, online action RPG and Mythos, casual MMORPG, once used to be developed by Flagship Studios. HanbitSoft now acquires IP (Intellectual Property) including the engines and source codes of both well made titles.

This means that HanbitSoft is now the owner of all the titles that Flagship Studios had been working on, and both titles will be developed in newly established studio in the U.S. HanbitSoft expects that full possession of these titles will not only bring them larger portion of the earnings but also upgrade the quality of contents fit for online games.

HanbitSoft had constantly tried to gain the IP of two titles after Flagship Studios shutdown. The company announced recently that the regarding issues are now all settled, and only thing left is to focus on developing the titles the best way possible.

“Hellgate: London is now HanbitSoft’s game, and we have already formed a team. They are doing hard work for updates and patches. Service in Asia including Korea is in good hands” said Gi-Young Kim, CEO of HanbitSoft, and added “I believe Mythos is a very attractive MMORPG, just gaining large fans from couple of beta tests. It has a lot of potential and it will also be developed at studio in San Francisco with Hellgate: London. Both titles will be presented soon with upgraded features.”

Enjoy all you Korean players. Hopefully Mythos will be available to the rest of us too! :)

24Oct

Hellgate London US/EU Servers Shutting Down Feb 1st

Posted in Electronic Arts, Flagship Seattle, Flagship Studios, Media, Namco, Ping0 | Leave a comment

Directly from the Hellgate London website:

NAMCO ANNOUNCES FREE SERVER SUPPORT INTO 2009 FOR HELLGATE

For questions regarding the shut down or additional information about Hellgate: London, please visit the game’s official website at www.hellgatelondon.com.

Santa Clara, Calif., (October 24, 2008) – NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc., today announced that they will continue to support customers of PC game Hellgate™: London with online server support and play through January 31, 2009 despite the closure of Flagship Studios. In a further gesture of support, Namco Bandai Games will provide this server support free of charge to all fans and players of the game up until the shut down date.   

NAMCO BANDAI Games appreciate the enthusiasm of all the Hellgate: London players and looks forward to providing them with future entertainment products. 

P.S. All the sub features and everything are open to everyone till servers go down.

Well it was fun while it lasted.
Good luck to the various people who worked on the game with whatever they do next, thanks to Tiggs and the other ex-Ping0 people who stuck around until the end and thanks to all the fans who made this site a joy to be a part of.
Now onto Diablo 3!!!
hellforge.gameriot.com

15Oct

Hellgate IAH Servers Finally Shut Down

Posted in Infocomm Asia Holdings | Leave a comment

In what would appear to be fairly obvious news to anyone involved with Hellgate, the IAH servers for the game (that’s the South East Asian ones) have finally been taken down. Here is a statement from the site.

Suspension of Hellgate: London’s Multiplayer Service
15/10/2008
Dear Gamers,

The online PC game Hellgate: London, IAHGames will suspend online multiplayer service for the game’s Alliance Server as of1200hrs (GMT+8) on 21st October 2008. The suspension of service will allow IAHGames, Flagship Studios, and other involved parties to reassess the situation before moving forward.

Be assured that IAHGames has weighed several options and opinions into this situation, and at the encouragement of virtually all involved, from the management to many current players, we feel it is the correct course of action.

All character, account, and item data will be safely retained on our servers until such a time when the multiplayer service status has changed. As such, all the heart and soul you have poured into your characters and Hellgate: London’s online world will not be erased. 

Online support of Hellgate: London’s single player mode will continue. The latest v1.2 patch from Flagship Studios can be manually applied here. 

The official Hellgate: London Alliance Forum will also be closed. Future updates to multiplayer and single player service will be released via our official site and direct emails.

Thank you for your support and patience.

IAHGames Team

Oh well, it was good while it lasted :)

09Oct

Diablo III: A Nostalgic Return to Tristram

Posted in Community, General | Leave a comment

Tristram is like a second home to many of us who played the original Diablo. 

Within this article, entitled “A Nostalgic Return to Tristram” I write about a return to the iconic, but ill-fated town of Tristram. The town that defined the world of Diablo and what we, as players of Diablo III can hope to expect when we step foot back into the town with which we grew familiar so long ago. 

This is the first of many Journal entries to come of my forays into Diablo’s place and setting, which hopefully serves to compliment our growing anticipation for Diablo III.