Hellgate will be subs-based

By Tom Bramwell Published 10 January, 2007

With open beta prior to launch.

Having banged on yesterday about his desire to appeal to Diablo fans, Flagship Studios CEO Bill Roper has admitted that upcoming PC title Hellgate: London will still have plenty in common with an MMO - including a subscription fee.

Speaking to Shacknews, Roper said that he expected Hellgate to spark a similar debate to the "religious argument" over whether Diablo and Diablo II were RPGs or not - except this time it's "whether it's an MMO or not". Guilds, heavily instanced online and raid-type gameplay ought to provide a clue.

The game's due out this summer, with Namco and EA partnering for its European distribution, but Roper says that interested gamers can expect to experience an open beta sometime prior to that.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (37) Latest comment 5 years ago

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

  • Laserbream #1 5 years ago

    Erm, what? A sub for an offline game? Shirley you jest Mr Roper?

  • Eraser #2 5 years ago

    Heavily instanced? That's the Guild Wars way of doing things, right, and the general concensus is that Guild Wars isn't an MMO.

  • [maven] #3 5 years ago

    I'm not happy with this development. Probably wouldn't have been able to run it on my laptop anyway...

  • Kami #4 5 years ago

    If recent titles are anything to go by, Open Betas just don't work any more... once upon a time, an open beta was a beautiful thing... just get it finished, get a SMALL group of gamers in to help, but don't open it up to just everyone and anyone... you're only asking for trouble...

  • Whizzo #5 5 years ago

    Oh dear, subs is a poor move.

    And Diablo isn't an RPG.

  • neuroniky #6 5 years ago

    Uh. I'm speechless.

    One of the beauties of Diablo 2 is that it has no subscription fees at all. As long as you keep logging every three month, you keep your characters and you can return to the game whenever you want. God knows how many time I fell tothe temptation and started another char or started mephisto running with another one just to see if I could find that elsive item I've never found before...

    Bad move, Roper, bad move. This means I'll probably stick to the offline game this time.

  • spongebob #7 5 years ago

    This might become the first MMO I'll subscribe.

  • UncleLou #8 5 years ago

    Hm, not great, but I am not really that interested in the multiplayer mode anyway.

  • groovychainsaw #9 5 years ago

    Wasn't that interested in multiplayer for this anyway, but its absolutely killed it stone dead for me now. The question is - will you have to pay a sub to play it standalone?

  • imYemeth #10 5 years ago

    Heavy instanced and sub... hmmm, strange descision.

  • UncleLou #11 5 years ago

    No - apart from that it would be madness, the Shacknews article makes it clear that it's only the multiplayer part.

  • jellyhead #12 5 years ago

    ummm, as i don't really give a fig about the whole "online gaming" thing ( yawn ) what does "heavily instanced" mean?

  • UncleLou #13 5 years ago

    It means that most parts of the online game won't be "massively multiplayer", but just you and your party. So you'll probably have a kind of hub and a few areas where you'll see hundreds of other players, but as soon as you enter a dungeon, that dungeon is only there for you and your small party.

  • jellyhead #14 5 years ago

    aha, thanks Lou.

  • TheSnotGoblin #15 5 years ago

    Wasn't massively interested in this title but most likely would have picked it up and played through in S.P. but no way in hell will I be paying a sub for it. If I'm gonna start subscribing to a game it'll be EVE; which I won't 'cause I know it will devour my life.

  • Xerx3s #16 5 years ago

    /brings out his red pen
    /scratches from wish list
    /wanders off

  • Psychotext #17 5 years ago

    This game is dead to me now.

  • Laserbream #18 5 years ago

    Cheers for clearing that up!

    I'll probably pay the sub if it means safety from cheaters and hackers. Online game of Titan Quest against strangers, anyone?

    N.B. I love titan quest, I just think it's a shame they didn't have the wherewithal to set up a multiplayer service that stored characters server-side.

  • Eraysor #19 5 years ago

    Curses, that just got struck off my "Looking-Forward-To" list.

  • paketep #20 5 years ago

    Don't care about MMO or paying subs.

    If it has free LAN multi, I'll buy it. Otherwise, frak it.

  • ahac #21 5 years ago

    I'm currently subscribed to WoW. H:L won't be able to replace that so I was planing to play it beside WoW like I do with Guild Wars. But I won't be paying a subscription for H:L (one subscription game is enough for me).

    "Free" multiplayer is really why Guild Wars sells. It wouldn't sell 3 million boxes if it had subscription and it wouldn't sell 3 million boxes if it could be pirated.

    It seems H:L will have a subscription for multiplayer, but if you only want the single player campaign you can still pirate it for free.
    So.. I guess it goes off my "must buy" list.

  • MetalDog #22 5 years ago

    Subs? Oh dear. 60% of my interest has just vanished.

  • dudefella #23 5 years ago

    Good job on making this gamer lose his interest in your game! Listen, asshats, unless I'm on one giant server with a couple of thousand more people, you have no right at all to charge monthly fees. It's disgusting how suddenly non-MMOs think it's cool to charge monthly fees just because the public has accepted it. Same with Phantasy Star Universe, which is NOT an MMO. A very worrying trend.

  • Sir Icey #24 5 years ago

    Come on, seriously ... you were not expecting this?

    High-profile, big-budget multiplayer game that will need constant patching, cheat protection, GM support and loot updates? Someone needs to foot the bill. And if you ask me, this does constitute value for money. It all depends on the actual price, of course.

    Admittedly, Diablo 2's battle.net was free, but this was before the MMORPG boom. And it did pay off for Blizzard, because without their experience with battle.net there wouldn't be WOW.

  • Whizzo #25 5 years ago

    If it has free LAN multi, I'll buy it. Otherwise, frak it.

    An interesting point, if it also allows people hosting their own online servers for small groups then fine, I'll buy. If it only supports MP through this subs based service then I think I'll pass.

    edit: having seen the gameplay footage at GameVideos, I think I won't be buying no matter what now.
    Edited by 1 at 10/01/07 @ 13:43

  • Nomgle #26 5 years ago

    >Come on, seriously ... you were not expecting this?

    Of course not ! No other PC games charge a sub for online play, apart from MMOs.

    >High-profile, big-budget multiplayer game that will need
    >constant patching, cheat protection, GM support and loot
    >updates? Someone needs to foot the bill.

    Eh ? You must have missed the part where every other none-MMO PC game manages the above without a monthly sub...

  • Tyronne #27 5 years ago

    They can shove this notion right up there arseholes, no way on earth am I even buying this now , plenty more games in the pc pond to look forward to.
    Edited by 1 at 10/01/07 @ 14:16

  • mkreku #28 5 years ago

    Subscription fees.. for what? What exactly are people going to pay for with this? Since when does it cost so much to have multiplayer games running that you have to charge twice: first for the game and then every month for as long as people are playing games? How on earth was it possible to have multiplayer games for free once upon a time?

    Sorry Hellgate: London developers, you lose.

  • JediMasterMalik #29 5 years ago

    Well thanks alot morons. Gives me a reason to not get the game now, great job idiots.

  • MaskedDave #30 5 years ago

    Well that's certainly gone down well...

  • TimiW #31 5 years ago

    As previously said by a few, free LAN and I'm in, if not, I'm out.

    Was looking forward to this :(

  • Derblington #32 5 years ago

    Shame, I really liked the art direction and setting for the game. I'm not going to constantly pay for it though.

  • DocTep #33 5 years ago

    Wow... That has to be the greatest PR move i've seen in some time.

    *Golf clap*

  • GordonJ@work #34 5 years ago

    Pre-order cancelled.

  • Reaper #35 5 years ago

    Whoops Shacknews got it wrong!

    EA contacted them and now they have put on update on the site.




    -----------------------------------------------------
    [link url=http:// hellgatecentral.rpgplanet.gamespy.com
    ]http://hellgatecentral.rpgplanet.gamespy...[/link]
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  • kangarootoo #36 5 years ago

    "has not in fact been any final decision made as to Hellgate: London’s online pricing model".

    That still sounds a bit wooly to me. Sounds more like marketing and damage control than a straight out clarification.

  • EnDream #37 5 years ago

    [link url=http://www.hellgateguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2887
    ]    http://ww w.hellgateguru.com/forum/showth...[/link]

    If they do something like Guild Wars, Im still interested and will reserve judgment til its closer to release.
    Edited by 1 at 11/01/07 @ 13:40