Flagship Sunk

[FoxBat]

[/url][url=http://hellgateguru.com/2008/07/flagship-studios-is-dead/]Flagship Studios Is Dead

Teep semi-confirmed this and suggests that an official announcement is likely on Monday.

[KingOfPain]

It is sad to see something like this happen to anyone. However, I can't say I felt any sense of surprise when I saw the news yesterday. The signs were everywhere.

*not a popular thing to say* As a (faceless) company, tho, I think FSS had it coming.

I still want my founders perks

PS: Maybe it's a blessing in disguise for the players... we have to wait and see

PPS: Just playing my lvl 17 hce toon now and I am required to put 3 more in str and 5 more in will to equip a quest item - out of an already tight stat system. I guess I will just do Aldwych in complete darkness, I have the balls

KoP

[KingOfPain]

I think I should expand on this

I still want my founders perks

I couldn't care less about any perks that would set me aside from non-subs. I only said this because one would think, even when one is making empty promises, would have at least some vague ideas what one wants to or can do. Most people are not asking for much (as little as an extra tag on the toon's name), and many like myself don't even care about the perks and just want some acknowledgment if FSS is going to deliver. Screwing your most loyal customers (the founders) for nine months (coming up) since release, and still no words about it is NOT GOOD business.

I could have created a human in that time

KoP

[FoxBat]

They're not dead! They feel fine! Well, as fine as you can feel after laying off everyone but the founders/management...

Suscriptions are frozen for now, you can't buy new ones, and existing ones won't be billed. Suspicions abound as to what the future holds.

As for my outsider interest. I haven't been around a community when an MMO-ish goes bust. I'd feel mighty ripped for my investment vaporizing... we're supposed to be buying entertainment, not playing the stock market. This could of course happen to almost any company or game, which makes me leery of the growing online-service format for RPGs.

[KingOfPain]

They're not dead!

Technicalities.... I guess they have arranged an extension to seek last resorts.

I'd feel mighty ripped for my investment vaporizing...

Weird, I don't feel anything. Am I in a state of shock? No. Maybe that's even worse, when one just doesn't care.

I just hope FSS takes this last opportunity to do the right thing, for themselves. IMO, who could have asked for a better start as a startup company, with a "talented" team who have worked together and their credentials - a studio/credentials that can sell games before they have a game. They fuckup big time. FSS as a company, as well as the names of the upper management are now names I don't want to see on the boxes of my future games. They can still salvage thier reputation somewhat by doing the right thing, by doing the players right. Such as:
Handing the IP to open source
Release the server pack so people can run their own servers
Polish v.2 and release it.
Making sure whoever takes over the IP fullfill the promises FSS made.
Patch Single Player to current build.
Maybe none of this is doable under these circumstances, I am just giving an example. I am sure FSS can come up with something if they want to.

Anyways, I am an optimist and I believe good things will come of this. If FSS stays afloat, it will surely have learned a good lesson (lets hope). If another company picks up the IP and continues, it couldn't do a worse job than FSS. And, the whole industry gets better having learned from FSS's mistakes.



KoP

*edit:added single player patch*

[KingOfPain]

From Hellgate guru

HanbitSoft: “Flagship Is Selfish And Irresponsible”



Written on July 16, 2008 – 7:17 pm | by Sol Invictus | HanbitSoft has lashed out against Flagship Studios in the Korean press, in the wake of the recent turbulence at the San Francisco-based game development studio calling them “selfish and irresponsible”. Details are as follows:[indent]Bill Roper and Directors of Flagship Studios Bear Responsibility

- HanbitSoft making good progress in securing intellectual property rights for Hellgate: London
- HanbitSoft is preparing for a lawsuit against Bill Roper and the founding directors of Flagship Studios.

Last weekend, Flagship Studios announced that former employees were fired and HanbitSoft mentioned that all measures were proceeding as planned to the benefit of players (in Korea) to ensure that continued service of Hellgate: London would be seamless despite the current problems at its development studio. In addition, HanbitSoft holds the executives of Flagship Studios fully responsible for the incident towards the rights and interests of the users and stakeholders, including shareholders and other parties involved. HanbitSoft is considering taking strong legal action against Flagship Studios in order to take them to task for their responsibilities.

HanbitSoft does not expect to have any difficulty in securing the exclusive intellectual property rights related to Mythos. HanbitSoft is prepared to deal with Comerica bank in a local visit to them next week in order to secure and acquire the intellectual property rights of Hellgate: London. HanbitSoft believes that the game has nothing to do with the aforementioned bank as HanbitSoft already holds the rights to the game in Asia. HanbitSoft believes it has a strong possibility of acquiring the intellectual property of Hellgate: London in the United States and the rest of the world.

HanbitSoft stated that they will be devising a plan to continue work on the games with local (Korean) game developers in order to see the game through.

HanbitSoft’s CEO Kim Ki-Young stated, “Hellgate: London has a strong possibility of being ‘reborn’ into an excellent game with an outstanding product life,” he continued to say that “With more than 500 people at its disposal, both in-house and outsourced contracts who are veteran developers of every genre ranging from casual games to hardcore MMORPGs, we are ready to recreate Hellgate: London into an excellent game.”

He continued, “We don’t have to recruit existing developers, however if we could do so, we could shorten the time for analysis and developing for users. Although we are trying our best, since Flagship Studios doesn’t want to cooperate, we have no choice.”

According to HanbitSoft, they offered several methods and the means to keep Flagship alive in consideration of the users, but Flagship majorly lacked in effort. Hanbitsoft already has offered large amounts of investments but Flagship replied with ridiculous counter-offers and the negotiations went south. Even so, HanbitSoft continued to make investment offers which were all rejected, leading to the lay-offs of all of the Flagship employees.

HanbitSoft also stated, “Flagship not only lacked effort, but were only looking for personal gain. Firing all of the Flagship employees in order to protect the personal interests of its founding members only shows how selfish and irresponsible they are.”

Flagship Studios is an incorporated company. Hence if any problems occur within this company, it doesn’t affect the finances of any of Flagship Studios’ founders.

HanbitSoft said they are going to take legal proceedings as Flagship Studios is legally responsible for a serious breach of duty in not protecting their stockholder’s rights. The legal proceedings will be done against Flagship’s founders and management people for their intellectual property. HanbitSoft currently owns a 9.5% stake in Flagship Studios.

[/indent]Korean source: ThisIsGame

KoP

[Dr.Disaster]

From HanbitSoft’s CEO Kim Ki-Young stated, “Hellgate: London has a strong possibility of being ‘reborn’ into an excellent game with an outstanding product life,” he continued to say that “With more than 500 people at its disposal, both in-house and outsourced contracts who are veteran developers of every genre ranging from casual games to hardcore MMORPGs, we are ready to recreate Hellgate: London into an excellent game.”

Eeeh .. re-create HG:L? Why? To cause hopes or fears?

Dr. Disaster

PS: I tried HG:L myself for 1, 2 days but it did not catch me; IMO too much equipment fiddling to make it a fine 1st person ShootEmUp.

[KingOfPain]

Yea. If I am disappointed, it's not that HGL isn't a good game, it's how much potential HGL has and yet the devs keep taking the game down the wrong paths.

The official forum is due to be closed tonight (short notice), no word about the server at all so it could go down anytime.

KoP

[Roland]

Well, I had help out hope until now KoP, but that hope is dwindling fast. Sad days, man. Very sad days indeed.

Taking up D2 (modding, of course) is looking better and better, especially with D3 reawakening my interest (re-reading old stories by Sirian didn't hurt any, either).

Guess I'll sign on tomorrow night, before I can't sign on anymore. Maybe I'll start a new Marksman.

[cb-13]

As posted by Tiggs today ....quote
Since word spreads fast around here and this thread needs a boost I can tell you this much... news will be coming soon for you folks. The game isn't going anywhere at the end of the month like the speculation has it nor is the forums. So you are stuck with Hellgate and the forums for a while That is all I can answer for now but I wanted to let you know you can focus on playing and not worrying.
end quote


CB-13