Hellgate is in dire straits, says designer

By Robert Purchese Published 11 June, 2008

Staff leaving Flagship "in droves".

Hellgate: London may be in trouble as word emerges that staff are leaving developer Flagship "in droves".

Speaking on his blog, Guy Somberg, one of the original programmers on the project, talks of work being "depressing" as the population does "nothing but complain".

(Interestingly the post has since been removed, but has been recorded for posterity by Inc Gamers.)

"Work is depressing right now," began Somberg. "Never mind the fact that Hellgate isn't as popular as anybody had hoped. Never mind the fact that there exists a term 'Flagshipped', meaning where a company basically over-promises and then screws you. Never mind the fact that the forums are totally populated by people who do nothing but complain and talk about how much the game sucks. Never mind the fact that people do the same thing in the game itself.

"So why is work depressing? (Other than all of those other depressing things, that is.) The reason is that people are leaving. In droves, they're leaving.

"Thing is, the way things are going I'm likely to be the only programmer still working on Hellgate left from the original crew. I've heard rumours that other programmers and artists are thinking of leaving. [And] every time a programmer leaves, it's more work for me. Every time an artist leaves, it's less content that we can create for Hellgate in the future," added Somberg.

He goes on to mention that Flagship founders Peter Hu, Dave Brevik and Tyler Thompson have all but moved away from Hellgate to work on different projects.

However, Somberg is optimistic and pins his hope on the Asian market rekindling a passion for his game, as the Koreans "really love" it and Hellgate has yet to open to the Chinese audience.

Hellgate: London launched last November to solid if unspectacular critical reception. It's an action role-playing game set 30 years in the future where the spawn of hell have broken their leash and stomped there way into our land.

Key to its offering was an optional subscription-based online multiplayer mode where you and your friends could team up and tackle raid content for loot, a bit like you would in an MMO.

Head over to our Hellgate: London review to find out more.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Triggerhappytel #1 4 years ago

    It must be horrible to spend so long working on a product like this only for everyone to shoot it down when it does finally get released.

  • nickthegun #2 4 years ago

    "Never mind the fact that the forums are totally populated by people who do nothing but complain and talk about how much the game sucks."

    Heh. Welcome to the internet.

  • anomagnus #3 4 years ago

    i tried it, it was ok, just ok

    it felt like a 'mmorpg lite' game

    maybe it was just me, but it felt like it didnt know what it wanted to be

  • Adman #4 4 years ago

    Kotaku actually investigated the story and posted it here: [link url=http://kotaku.com/5014976/inte rview-flagship-studios-on-life-after-hellgate-launch
    ]http://ko taku.com/5014976/interview-flag...[/link]

    A key line from one of the employees says "We've actually had very few people leave. Flagship is still fully staffed and working on both Hellgate and Mythos... I think we have about 100 employees now."

    Sounds like the guy who wrote the original blog had a shit day and is regretting saying what he said.

  • neilka #5 4 years ago

    Sounds like money for nothing.

  • cnlfailure #6 4 years ago

    Pity. I really like Hellgate.

  • illusion #7 4 years ago

    This is the game where you basically hold down the mouse button and move slowly through the randomly generated but amazingly samey instances?

    I wonder why it's not a huge winner.

    It's not compelling I played it and felt like nothing made much of a difference. Weapons, armour etc yeah you picked up new stuff and wore that and sometimes you didn't have enough stats to wear something else. However it didn't encourage me to do anything differently it just made me make do with what I had and be happy.

    In the end it wasn't that much fun to play and they should have realised that during development.

  • Eraysor #8 4 years ago

    "Never mind the fact that the forums are totally populated by people who do nothing but complain and talk about how much the game sucks."

    He doesn't seem to realise that these people are actually correct.

  • M83J01P97 #9 4 years ago

    Bet they regret leaving Blizzard now huh...

  • penhalion #10 4 years ago

    I have this and it's good for the first few stations, then it get's insanely hard if you are a single player. Level grinding becomes impractical at about the level 25 mark. The creatures you can beat give little or no exp at that level and the ones you can't are the ones you need to!

    I am currently doing the trials. I am in the capture the five poles for good (the beauty trial). Here it sends a never ending streal of heavily armed imp lords at me and spawns carbuncles on the floor. There is even a boss floating eye that occasionally spawns. In short no matter how good your shield is, you can't kill 4 imp lords and a boss eye by yourself. If you do manage it you are left very weak and possibly low on health regens. At which point the game simply spawns more imp lords. At my current recconing, it would take me days of level grinding and weapon collecting, upgrading etc. etc. to be in with a chance. You can't even hire on some backup to help you out!

    So with the inconsistent difficulty and lack of variety (everything looks the same after the first few stations. You keep hoping that something new will crop up but, it never does.

    I think it's time hellgate was given a lot more fresh content or simply allowed to die in peace.

  • I_Have_The_Power #11 4 years ago

    It must be horrible to spend so long working on a product like this only for everyone to shoot it down when it does finally get released.

    that is my life in a nutshell...

  • penhalion #12 4 years ago

    @I_Have_The_Power

    Been there too mate. I have a few very good reviewing games under my belt and a few not so good ones. I also have a "No wasn't me in the credits" game that I neglect to add to my CV these days.

    I always look at it this way. One man does not a game make (unless it's a one man game....er um anyway). Sometimes you win and sometimes you simply need to crawl under a rock and contemplate what you've unleashed on the world. At the very least it provides ammunition to shoot down fanboys when they claim their favourite console is so good it can make breakfast for them. You can use actual technical speal to introduce them to the realities of the situation.....of course then they go off and strop....call you names.....claim your lying......er ok no perks there really.

  • Saladin #13 4 years ago

    I've actually gone back to Hellgate, after a friend bought it. Previously, I played alone, trying to form groups with randoms and had no fun. Playing it with someone you actually know is actually great fun.

  • Gurgeh #14 4 years ago

    "We've actually had very few people leave. Flagship is still fully staffed and working on both Hellgate and Mythos... I think we have about 100 employees now.""

    Mythos was always more fun than Hellgate and it's good to see it progressing.

  • Kropotkin #15 4 years ago

    I played it and completed it with some aid from randoms during the tougher missions. Oddly enough the only thing that drove me on was to see how progressively worse the story got. Not wishing to spoil it too much the ending of this game was terribly predictable and was a massive dissappointment, much like the rest of the game really.

    HGL was another Haze. Over hyped by the developer to the point where they even believed themselves they were lying so much it convinced many that the game was worth people's time. Sadly once the demo of both these games appeared it was apparent that they were still born turds that should never have left the developers respective offices.

    Flagship and Free Radical have indeed been guilty of 'flagshipping' which equates to over promising and not delivering even close to what was mooted prior to their respective game's release. Let this be a warning to all developers., if you game is a turd then please ask yourself this simple question: 'What would Blizzard do?'. Blizzard have killed off many of their titles before they saw the light of day and it hasn't done them any harm. It's either that or get slapped with the 'Flagshipped' moniker which no one wants or needs.

  • Dogstar060763 #16 4 years ago

    I've never played HGL, so cannot comment on the game, but I do wonder why everyone acts so suprised when a weary developer merely expresses a negative point-of-view many of us hold about our own jobs. Get over it. It must be very depressing indeed to toil away for years on a game title only to see it die a death at release - by whatever means. I have always sympathised with devs on this and I don't ever subscribe to the view that any developer, ever, sets out to make a bad game. Things sometimes just don't work out, visions get clouded and sometimes they get lost along the way.

    I like to hear these real-life opinions from within the business - it makes such a refreshing change from the constant sugar-coated, truth-dodging PR-approved media friendly bollocks we, as gamers, are subjected to daily from publishing houses. For the most part, still, the unfettered opinions and thoughts of developers are rarely heard (almost never when a game gets into 'trouble').

    I applaud the guy (see what I did there?) from Flagship for just saying it how he felt it. He doesn't need to lose his job over this; he's a young man with a valid, informed opinion. It doesn't make him right - it just means that's how he felt about things right there, right then. People need to calm down about this stuff. If anything, hearing the occasional voice like this helps to remind those of us on the outside that developers are just regular guys and gals like the rest of us, not some hateful concept of 'code monkeys' slaving away, without thoughts or feelings or opinions of their own.
    Edited by 2 at 11/06/08 @ 13:56

  • I_Have_The_Power #17 4 years ago

    @penhalion

    Yeah, thanks :)

    In case you haven't already realised, I'm actually posting under an alias from my usual EG tag. I think we all know the situation with disgruntled employees speaking out in blogs and forums and the like and the consequences therein. I'm not a disgruntled employee, I actually love where I work, its just I’m sick to my teeth from making 5 or 6/10 games...

    Still i'll bide my time and one day im sure my day will come! :)

  • teknohead #18 4 years ago

    I bought this game on launch and fucking hated it. Working for that stupid crazy guy and going to chocolate land to collect the magical pot or whatever the fuck he asks for PISSED ME OFF.

    Fuck them for their shitty attempt at humour and fuck them for their way to often stabs at Diablo.

  • Fusey #19 4 years ago

    If they had marketed the game as what it finally turned out to be then it would have been better received.

    But what they did was to tell you that you were getting a fully featured MMO like WoW or similar which is so very far from the truth.

    There should never had been a subscription for the full game, they should have made extra content available via microtransactions instead as that is easier to swallow for a player with this type of game.

    They deserve everything they get to be honest.

  • SEVQA #20 4 years ago

    "Hellgate has yet to open to the Chinese audience"

    Yeah I like to see them sell anything over 50p in that market, pure fantasy! Idoits!

  • MrChuckles #21 4 years ago

    I've made 6/10 right through to 9.1/10's on metacritic and it's not making a game that ends up bad that hurts it working your arse off on a game you think is good, but the publisher decides it isn't and doesn't push it. I worked on a game that scored 8/10 across teh board, but the publisher didn't like it, so 3 years of hard work went down the pan with a game no one ever heard of, and those that did loved it.

    Working on a game you know will be crap, and is, isn't that bad, just make sure you don't kill yourself making it, it isn't worth it.

  • berelain #22 4 years ago

    i got Hellgate recently, and Im actually really enjoying it. With the patches that have come out its a much more stable and entertaining game.

    I think Flagships problem was the subscription. The subscriptions cost a lot of money for relatively little content compared to most MMO's out there...

  • VMerken #23 4 years ago

    Subscription Model + Absurd EULA = Deserved Loss

    No regrets.

  • Royal Fool #24 4 years ago

    They made some huge mistakes right at launch, things that turned a lot of potential players away. Like the premium subscription crap and the early, buggy release that resulted in negative impressions from early adopters.

  • Luckz #25 4 years ago

    The EULA disaster turned everybody off from it.