GameCyte

Though our last report from the company indicated that they were still afloat, there’s no question that what’s left of Flagship Studios is dangling precariously close to the water. As prognosticated in early June, most staff have been let go, further subscriptions for completed title Hellgate: London have been blocked, and work-in-progress Mythos has gone on hiatus. Meanwhile, Korean financier and online partner HanbitSoft has made public their intentions to pursue Flagship’s intellectual property, to the very doors of the bank if need be.

But amidst all this turmoil, hope springs anew. The Mythos and Hellgate forums, scheduled to die a quick death last Friday, are mysteriously still running. Community Manager Diane “Tiggs” Migliaccio told Hellgate: London players neither the forums nor the game would disappear come the end of July. And now, a representative from Namco Bandai has stepped in to say that “we’re working on it,” and that an announcement of some sort is coming.

As his very first public post on the Hellgate: London forums, Namco Bandai’s Senior Director of Business Development, Zack Karlsson, relayed the following message:

Hello Hellgaters,

I know everyone is looking for an announcement, and we’d love to make one — but right now, many things are in flux and we don’t have all the information yet. As soon as we do, we’ll post here on the forums, on the website, and anywhere else we can find you.

In the short term, please do not worry. The game is up, the servers are not going away in the short term and any major changes to status will be communicated in advance.

I’d like to ask for your patience as we try to figure it all out and chart a new course. We value your community, your commitment, and your passion for Hellgate and we will make sure that any solution that we architect will support all of you as best as we are able.

Thanks again. We hope to have a real announcement shortly.

The community initally expressed doubt that “Zack Karlsson” was the real deal, but Migliaccio quickly vetted for the Namco Bandai representative; and after the clamor died down Karlsson wrote one subsequent post in which he relates that he’d intended the original post “to show that we’re here, we’re paying attention, and we’re working on it.”

Though a number of publications have attempted to highlight the fact that Namco Bandai has had a webpage dedicated to Hellgate: London as of this morning, this should not be taken as any indication Namco Bandai has begun negotiations out of the blue — Namco and Flagship reached a publishing agreement for “Flagship’s first PC game” in 2004, over a year before Hellgate: London was first announced, and two before Electronic Arts received responsibility to market and distribute the game.

Even as some are taking Namco Bandai’s removal of the old webpage as temporary and a sign that it will soon be updated with new information about the title, GameCyte believes that the disappeance is meant to keep readers from jumping to the conclusion that its existence implies a new publishing deal.

Though we wish Hellgate players all the best and are excited to hear for ourselves what’s brewing behind the scenes, we note that the language in Karlsson’s message (”the servers are not going away in the short term,” “changes to status will be communicated in advance,” “will support all of you as best as we are able,”) sounds more like that of a doctor to a patient on life support, than that of a firm which intends to fully bail out its partner.

May we soon be proven wrong.

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