Hellgate: London News

Hellgate: London is back on Steam.

Remember Hellgate? It's back - as a Steam Greenlight pitch.

Nomadic former Blizzard leader Bill Roper has been promoted to leader of Disney's games business.

Closed beta test keys for Hellgate are now available to North American and European audiences, T3 Entertainment has announced.

Nab a key from the Hellgate website and you'll get into the free-to-play revival of the once dead MMO. The closed beta is scheduled to run from 3rd-5th June.

Developed by former Blizzard employees, Hellgate first launched back in November 2007 picking up a 7/10 from Eurogamer.

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Hellgate: London, Flagship Studio's ill-fated fantasy MMO, is gearing up for a relaunch after it was taken offline back in 2009.

New publisher Hanabitsoft has announced a closed beta will run from 3rd to 5th June, with a full North American release following on after that. A European release hasn't been confirmed yet.

No further details have been announced, other that the game has switched over to a free-to-play model.

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Once powerful game developer Bill Roper has reappeared, and he's got some "bigger PC console-type pitches" to make when the right publisher comes a knocking on his door.

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

Following the announcement the Hellgate: London servers will be closed early next year, HanbitSoft - the South Korean company that now owns the rights to the game - has reassured fans it's coming back. A new expansion pack is on the way, though so far it looks like the relaunch is only planned for Asian territories.

HanbitSoft parent company T3 Entertainment announced it would continue work on Hellgate back in August. The game had been left homeless after the closure of developer Flagship, along with never-released title Mythos. However, T3 decided to resurrect both games at a new studio in San Francisco.

Now, an unnamed Hellgate product manager has posted on a letter HanbitSoft PR manager's blog. The letter states that a new update to the game is in the works and will be distributed digitally.

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Namco Bandai has announced that it will close all servers for Hellgate: London, the online RPG from doomed studio Flagship, on 31st January 2009.

Bill Roper, co-founder of the all-but-extinct Flagship Studios, has said there are no secret piles of money to rescue Hellgate, and that firing the majority of staff at the developer was his "hardest professional day" ever.

Hellgate: London and Mythos have been picked up by the Asian publisher T3 entertainment, which is setting up a new San Francisco-based studio to carry out development work, reports GamesIndustry.biz.

Namco Bandai has promised players of Hellgate: London that the game is "not going away" in a post on the game's forum.

Flagship boss Bill Roper has confirmed reports that the studio has fired "most employees".

Hellgate: London and Mythos developer Flagship Studios has closed its doors and made all staff redundant.

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

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

There isn't much in the way of fresh MMO news this morning, because the world of massively multiplayer gaming spent most of yesterday trying to outdo itself - and every other section of the gaming industry - in an orgy of funny fakery. And we have to say it did rather well.

The Stonehenge Chronicles update for Hellgate: London is going live today.

Flagship has slopped out plans to introduce a new patch for its action role-playing title Hellgate: London later this week.

Developer Flagship will be taking the Hellgate: London servers offline today to implement a new patch.

Downtime is expected for a couple of hours between 4pm and 6pm GMT, after which you should find some new features to play with and plenty of fixes to niggling problems.

Chief among them is access to 24 character slots for absolutely everyone, a privilege previously restricted to those paying a monthly subscription. It benefits those of you eager to tinker with class builds and that sort of stuff, although make sure you realise you cannot use your single-player character online but have to start from scratch - better to make an early start than realise this late on.

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Hellgate might be a bit like Diablo and similar to Titan Quest, but then it is made by ex-Blizzard staff. Besides, Diablo was fantastic anyway - and now we have sumptuous graphics to dress it in.

The game has been out for a week already and we have given you our review, but to take it one step further we thought we would capture footage of us playing it to give you an idea of what you can really expect.

The English footage, best served with fish and chips, shows our heroic warrior Bertie go from creation to world renowned hero. Along the way he levels up - as you might expect - and fiddles around with skill trees, statistics and his inventory. He also chats to other people in tube stations to gather-up some quests and ventures through a hellgate to take on some big, named nasties.

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Flagship Studios is taking down the Hellgate: London servers this afternoon to add some special content for "Guy Fawkes' Night", a holiday still celebrated in England.

Flagship Studios has poured out more details about what you will get for your money in the subscription-based Hellgate: London multiplayer mode.

For a start, you will be able to challenge yourself with two extra difficulties: Elite Mode and Hardcore Mode. The first of these makes all nasties stronger, cleverer, and more likely to hunt in larger packs; the latter disables resurrection, meaning you will stay on the floor if your head gets bitten off or your arms go missing.

Subscribers will also get exclusive ongoing content, which will begin with Halloween-themed events and items. Those of you willing to participate can create a mixture of meat and metal called a Zombot, get hold of a unique helmet named the All Hallow's Visage, enjoy treats that have stat-boosting properties and venture off on some unique quests. Further down the line you will be treated to new areas, items, raid content and much more.

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Update: EA has waded in and said it will be exclusively available on Game Daily from 17:00 BST today, and available everywhere else 24 hours later.

Flagship has said us Europeans will not be treated to a Collector's Edition of Hellgate: London.

Descend down the Eurogamer TV escalator and you will find a new exclusive Hellgate: London trailer detailing the Charing Cross station area in the game.

Those of you enjoying the freshly redesigned Eurogamer TV may have noticed a new trailer for Hellgate: London this morning.

Sign-ups for the Hellgate: London beta test have begun. Just get yourself over to the official site in one piece to pop your name down.

If you're one of the lucky ones pulled out of the gruesome sorting hat, you'll have a chance to get to grips with the ambitious multiplayer part of the game. You might remember that there are two tiers for this; one is a limited and free version, the other asks for a monthly subscription of GBP 6.99 in return for bundles of exciting bits and pieces - player housing, extensive guild options, enormous raid encounters, loads of items to collect, and more.

It forms an integral part of the package developer Flagship Studios will be offering when the full game launches on 2nd November.

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Flagship Studios has announced that a subscription to Hellgate: London's prestigious multiplayer mode will cost GBP 6.99 (EUR 9.99) a month.

EA has announced that Hellgate: London will be released across Europe on 2nd November.

Flagship Studios and EA have finally decided on a pricing model for Hellgate: London's MMO mode.

Casual online adventure Mythos has entered into public alpha testing today, giving you a chance to jump into the action and see what you think.

The game's being developed by Flagship Studios, which is famously made up of brain-boxes that worked on action role-playing game Diablo back in the day, and is due for release later this year.

It's an action MMORPG where you'll be able to play as Elves, Gremlins or Humans, and explore randomised dungeons in an isometric point-and-click style affair. And while grouping is the core-concept, those of you who like to go solo can do just that, using a wealth of skills to win yourself gold, gems, armour and weapons.

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Having talked yesterday about the inclusion of a subsciption-based MMO mode for Hellgate: London, Flagship Studios CEO Bill Roper is now saying it's only one of the options being explored.

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 at ginormous electronics show CES in Las Vegas, Flagship Studios head Bill Roper said today that upcoming MMO Hellgate: London is intended to "reach out to Diablo players" and that the title is very much a continuation of Diablo II's gameplay.

Encouraged presumably by the success of its collaboration on We Love Katamari (oh), Namco Bandai's come back to EA for help with publishing Flagship Studios' PC debut Hellgate: London in Europe and North America.

There's still a while to wait until Flagship's rather fancy looking PC title Hellgate: London hits the shops - but according to studio boss Bill Roper, they've already got big plans for developing the franchise further.

Namco Bandai's announced a deal with Dark Horse to do a comic based on Hellgate: London - Flagship Studios' debut PC game.

The second character class in forthcoming PC title Hellgate: London has been revealed - and it turns out they're a rather dodgy sounding bunch.

Namco and Flagship Studios have released a four-minute orgy of computer-generated violence to help promote forthcoming first-person PC role-player Hellgate: London, and, rather fittingly given the fact that London's basking in the inexplicable glow of a heat wave (or at least heat flash-flood), we've mirrored it on Eurofiles.

Following the revelation in the US print press last month that Flagship Studios was working on Hellgate: London, publisher Namco has revealed a few more details about the forthcoming RPG.