Just saw this on various news sites. wow, what a bummer. It seems like the shit has really hit the fan though. I mean, when a company goes down, this is probably one of the worst case scenarios. Legal battles, loss of all I.Ps, entire staff let go, and a promising title (Mythos) is up in the air.
http://www.flagshipped.com/2008/07/11/flagship-has-been-flagshipped
Flagships's Community Manager, Taylor Balbi, has revealed, through sources, that all Ping0 and Flagship Studios staff have been made redundant. Employees were notified at a company meeting and subsequently informed that the offices will be officially closed on Saturday. Balbi went on to reveal that three of the studio's top brass dug into their own pockets to provide 30 days of pay to all employees.
So disgruntled ex-Blizzard guys leave to forge a new company to hopefully gain the same heights, but after one decent albiet flawed game, have gone belly up. There's no doubt they've gone some really talented people there, but heck, even I've heard about the problems and glitches that game has been having since launch. The GDAA had Dave Glenn (Art Director at Flagship) down for Game Connect: Asia Pacific who did a great presentation on Hellgate: London, and he used to do art on Diablo, so it's a shame to know that he's probably out of a job right now. I'm sure he'll find another studio to work for without a problem, though.
I haven't played the game, however. RPG's and all that aren't really my thing.
The gameplay was very
The gameplay was very lackluster. I participated in the beta and even a week before the game was to be released, it wasn't exactly fun to play. It was pretty much Diablo without as much variation.
The game really excited me initially, and the potential was there, but I think the setting and gameplay were too bland. Another example that grey games are boring.
I also think the Halloween release date was too soon for the game, but was chosen for the marketing appeal.
The End.
I did read in those articles
I did read in those articles somewhere that there was a squabble about the release of the game.
Well I hadn't played Hellgate : London but from what I saw it didn't look too bad, and I had thought that it was unlikely such an experienced group of people would make such a great mess. Shows that it can happen to anyone though, which is kind of scary in some ways, and kind of re-assuring in another :)
Obviously though, this still points to there being some serious issues with the funding model and what kind of wealth and security a fledgling developer can build.