Hellgate: London still dead to the west

By Oli Welsh Published 5 November, 2008

Confirmed: relaunch is Asia-only.

Following yesterday's reports that Hellgate: London is to return, Namco Bandai has clarified the announcement does not pertain to the US and Europe.

In a post on the official hellgate forum, a Namco Bandai staffer clarified that the company still owns the rights to the online RPG in the US and Europe, and has no plans to extend service beyond the last day of January 2009.

"People are speculating and I don't want anyone shocked on January 31, 2009 when the server and forums shut down and there is nothing," said Namco.

"Let me explain things a bit to see if it clears up any issues for you. Hanbit owns the IP and rights to publish anywhere other then the US and EU and I think the other territory is Japan. Namco owns the rights to publish in the US and EU."

As we spotted yesterday, a statement from HanbitSoft's top brass regarding the continuation of the game with a new expansion only mentioned that "service in Asia including Korea is in good hands".

Namco announced last week that it was closing down Hellgate's servers at midnight on January 31st, following developer Flagship's demise in July.

HanbitSoft and its owner T3 Entertainment said in August that they would continue development of Hellgate and sister game Mythos at a new studio based in San Francisco.

The future of Mythos, a free-to-play Diablo-style MMO, is still uncertain in the West, since it wasn't included in the Namco Bandai deal. We wouldn't rule out Hellgate's eventual return either, but it would take a publisher who was willing to buy the rights from Namco Bandai, and strike a deal with HanbitSoft for any new content it produces.

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About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (12) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • dr_faulk #1 3 years ago

    Booooo!

  • UncleLou #2 3 years ago

    So Namco bought the rights in the EU and US, but they just close it down, while standing in Hanbit's way? Very strange business decision.

  • Exarch #3 3 years ago

    Nah, Namco owned the rights from day one. AFAIR they were Flagship's original publisher, and apparently they didn't sell the rights for the US/EU countries. Maybe Hanbit couldn't afford worldwide rights?

  • UncleLou #4 3 years ago

    Wasn't the game originally published by EA, at least in Europe?

    I am confused now. :)

  • SliderNL #5 3 years ago

    For the confused. Namco is the publisher, who made a deal with EA to get it published in the EU.

    I don't know why people make a big fuss about it. Sure Flagship had some big names on it. They were to ambitious, the result was Hellgate: London, a nice but a very flawed game, which didn't make it. So move on, don't hang on a dead game.

  • UncleLou #6 3 years ago

    I don't know why people make a big fuss about it. Sure Flagship had some big names on it. They were to ambitious, the result was Hellgate: London, a nice but a very flawed game, which didn't make it. So move on, don't hang on a dead game.

    I think you miss the point a bit.

  • sneetch #7 3 years ago

    @UncleLou
    "I don't know why people make a big fuss about it. Sure Flagship had some big names on it. They were to ambitious, the result was Hellgate: London, a nice but a very flawed game, which didn't make it. So move on, don't hang on a dead game.

    I think you miss the point a bit."

    What is the point then? I've missed it too. Is it the "people have lost jobs" point? That is indeed unfortunate but the game was flawed and I don't believe it was ever really all that viable as a subscription game, I'd love to know how they sold that idea to the publishers. I certainly couldn't see a reason for subscribing to it, couldn't see how Flagship could add enough value to the game to justify a monthly fee.

    Don't get me wrong, I thought Hellgate was good fun, I played it co-op with two friends of mine, we played through it once, completed the quest-line by level 29-30ish, looked about and could see nothing worth continuing with. As one of my mates said; it's pure popcorn, pick it up, blast some demons but pretty shallow and repetitive in the long run. We each of us only played those co-op characters, never bothered with alts as they would be running through the exact same story and exact same quests and once we'd done it we couldn't see the point of redoing it again.

    Although it had the best character ever in that swearing vendor in one of the side stations.

  • Grim... #8 3 years ago

    So people in London can't play Hellgate: London?
    Rubbish :(

  • rhubarbandcustard #9 3 years ago

    Couldn't asians in Europe be provided with a special access code? Please? Pretty please?

  • UncleLou #10 3 years ago

    The point is not that it is discontinued, the point is that they do go on with it and plan to publish an expansion pack, but not in Europe and the US. I fully agree that the subscription model for this game was suicidal, and they couldn't try to revive that here. An expansion pack, however, that's in production anyhow...

    I was also a bit confused about the "big fuss" comment.

  • sneetch #11 3 years ago

    @UncleLou
    "The point is not that it is discontinued, the point is that they do go on with it and plan to publish an expansion pack, but not in Europe and the US. I fully agree that the subscription model for this game was suicidal, and they couldn't try to revive that here. An expansion pack, however, that's in production anyhow...

    I was also a bit confused about the "big fuss" comment."

    Ah, fair enough, it's a bit baffling that the relaunch and expansion pack aren't going to be released here (yet).

    @Grim...

    It'll be renamed Hellgate: No Londoners :)

  • Kami #12 3 years ago

    Actually, Namco-Bandai do NOT own the IP rights to Hellgate: London, they were owned by the bank that took control when Flagship went down - along with their other assets like Mythos. In the meantime, to give the fanbase some hope, N-B kept the online servers up. Now the rights to Hellgate have been bought, Namco are being asked to discontinue their support for the western market on a particular date so the game can be relaunched in a new territory.

    Basically, Namco-Bandai have no real say in the future of Hellgate: London. HanbitSoft can do whatever they want really but I would be extremely surprised if they didn't appease the Western market with at least single-player content. There're are lot of Hellgate fans out there and the IP rights can't have been cheap. Pissing off a userbase is not a good idea either - HanbitSoft may need that audience in future, and I'm sure they know this.

    I think the main hurdle now is simply to get the business end sorted. We'll likely know more about the legal and contractual obligations in the new year....