Hellgate: London worries "inaccurate"

By Robert Purchese Published 12 June, 2008

Flagship boss claims all is well.

Flagship co-founder David Brevik has denied claims that his studio and Hellgate: London are on a slippery downward slope.

He was responding to comments made by in-house programmer Guy Somberg, who posted on his blog that staff were leaving in "droves" and Hellgate was a disappointment, with Flagship a "depressing" place to work.

"Everyone has good days and bad days. Guy was having a bad day," said Brevik. "He vented, exaggerated, and posted information that was inaccurate.

"We will be the first to admit that Hellgate: London did launch with some problems. The game would certainly have benefited from a couple more months in the oven, but as an independent developer we didn't have the ability to delay our ship date.

"It can be difficult to stand by and see something that you put your heart and soul into, week in and week out, get the initial reception Hellgate got. It can put a strain on any developer and some days it can get to you. Thankfully, after some very hard work by all the people here, including Guy, the game is much better now and we believe in the future of Hellgate," he added.

Suggestions that the directors and founders had jumped ship on projects and left Somberg to cope on his own were dismissed as well. Brevik explained that all were either attached to Hellgate: London or free-to-play MMO Mythos, which should enter beta in the next couple of months.

Brevik also said the staff loss problem wasn't as bad as Somberg had made out.

"In total, we have over 100 employees working for both studios," he said. "As is typical in the industry, after a game is released some people naturally want to work on something else and they leave the company to do so. But in total we have had less than 10 percent turn-over and have rehired for all needed positions," said Brevik.

"The team size for Hellgate is as big now as when we shipped. We are putting all of our efforts into these projects and I think it will show in the upcoming Hellgate Abyss Chronicles."

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 (10) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • AJUK #1 4 years ago

    Textbook example of how one internet post can stir up a whole bunch of self-fulfilling prophecies? Wonder if they'll outlive this downward slope doomsaying? :(

  • Pirotic #2 4 years ago

    he was inaccurate and exaggerating? if so why hasn't he been promoted to lead designer by now.

    Love how developers now have the term 'flaggedshipped' for when a title over-promises and under delivers.

  • ZuluHero #3 4 years ago

    isn't it "flagshipped"?

  • BootLace #4 4 years ago

    "Love how developers now have the term 'flaggedshipped' for when a title over-promises and under delivers."

    That's only because they found it too hard to type Molyneuxed :)

  • penhalion #5 4 years ago

    @Pirotic

    It's not developers that use the term flagshipped it's gamers!

  • MaxiSleep #6 4 years ago

    Hellgate London is a great first third of an MMO

  • kallenai #7 4 years ago

    Having experienced the shambles that is HGL I tend to have more belief in Guy Somberg's blog comments than the emergency 'sticky plaster' cover up job that 'guys comments were inaccurate' released today by David Brevik.

    The launch of HGL was a total shambles and never came anywhere close to the proposed content or basis for the game as hyped for 2 years prior to release by Flagship. I'm prepared to accept that every game at launch has a bumpy ride but HGL's whole concept was a mess from the start, how they ever considered it a form of 'mmo' beggars belief and then they expected people to pay a sub for it as well.

    Concluded after 3 month's of trying to like HGL that just because the developers 'previously worked for Blizzard' that is no guarantee that when they went solo they'd still be able to produce a polished game with the longevity of the standards of Blizzard.

  • spimmy #8 4 years ago

    you guys should read what this community manager guy at flagship thinks of the players in this dev mythos chat
    http://ww w.flagshipped.com/forum/viewtop...

  • Saladin #9 4 years ago

    Can you say "damage control"?

  • Bluetribe #10 4 years ago

    I predict Mythos, and Asian HGL sales won't even save their asses and more employees will leave this sinking flagship.