Hellgate: London still dead to the west Comments by Oli Welsh

Booooo!

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.

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?

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

I am confused now. :)

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.

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.

@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.

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

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

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.

@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 :)

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....