Flagship is going bust!?

[FrieChamp]

http://kotaku.com/5024558/flagship-sunk ... f-hellgate

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53581

Too early on a Sunday morning to write an extensive post, just wanted to say:

[dux]

Kind of what happens when your first new title is a major disappointment

[-HP-]

Ouch...

[Mazy]

Too sad really, but I guess they had it coming.

[JohnC]

Apparently the Schaeffer brothers (likely the namesake of Schaeffer's Hammer in diablo 2) gave their employees 30 days pay out of their own pockets. Standup guys, it seems.

[JamesL]

Shame, despite its major flaws (there were many) I quite enjoyed playing it and got at least 30-40 hours worth out of it.

Another case of a project's ambition outstripping its development timescale and funding I think.

[Zacker]

Woah, there is quite a bunch of rumors and conflicting statements flying around here. I think it's quite sad to see as I have heard that Hellgate: London had lots of good ideas and elements. I was going to try it myself at some point, but I guess that's not possible anymore if they are closing down the servers?

[JamesL]

I don't see how they can drop the servers. The game is still out there on the shelves and people are still playing it, so shutting the servers is not really likely to be an option for the immediate future. It's all going to become a bit lawless in there for a while now I expect.

A friend of mine who still plays it said the servers appear to have been swamped with botters trying to sell gold/items. I guess no one is administrating the game right now ...

[JohnC]

A friend of mine who still plays it said the servers appear to have been swamped with botters trying to sell gold/items. I guess no one is administrating the game right now ...

Oh cool, so it's even more like Diablo 2!

On that note, rumor has it Flagship was well aware of Diablo 3 and their only hope was to get Hellgate out ahead of it.

I equate this with all of the greats who left Saturday Night Live to make redundant comedies. It's great that you want to do something new and make it big on your own, and I admire the initiative, but man oh man. It's not as good as your old stuff.

[Erratic]

Mythos was becoming really well regarded overall as well. I'm think that loss is going to hit harder than Hellgate.