Rumors are flying today that Flagship Studios, creators of Hellgate London and Mythos, founded by the creators of the Diablo franchise, and (at one point) staffed almost entirely by ex-Blizzard North employees, is soon to close due to financial difficulties. Their Korean partners/owners are said to be taking over, staff cuts are confirmed, and things look very grim.
Wrangling over their game properties and legal issues will dominate the news in the days to come, but however those matters shake out, this is a say day for the gaming community. Flagship was staffed by very talented guys (and girls) who had a dream to create great computer games. I was lucky enough to be invited to their offices for business and for pleasure, and everyone there was invariably kind and helpful to me and the other webmasters in the HGL and Mythos gaming community. Let's wish them all the best of luck in landing on their feet, and coming back with future titles as good as their past work.
Update: And it's done. We have received inside confirmation that everyone has been laid off and the studio is closing. I hate to resort to an emoticon in a news post, but...
That sucks, they make good games. I'm playing the Mythos Beta right now and it is very fun. (Unlike most MMORPGs). I hope everything works out for these guys, they are responsible for Diablo 1 and 2 as well as other fun games and are very talented.
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Where there is truth, he must find.
Where there is destruction, he must rebuild.
Where there is love, he must protect."
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Meh, didn't like the company anyways. Always trying to copy Diablo... Why couldn't they just come up with there own game ideas? Lazy? Quick buck? Well I bet they learned there lesson. Diablo 3 developement started before Hellgate: London ever existed. Yet hellgate:london was released a year ago. And Diablo 3 is still in developement. You can tell just by that they didnt put any thought into it. They just took abunch of Diablo stuff and tried to rehash it. Put it together and threw it out there.
Mythos is the same way but a lil more closer to the Diablo world and well even a lil funner. But yet again same thing as hellgate:london.
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Not surprising considering how bad everyone says hellgate is. I guess the formula dark, gritty, full of pentagrams, and evil looking monsters can't make a game alone. It also ran like shit when it came out and the tetris inventory made it a hassle to handle loot in a quick manner. Oh and charging people a subscription and ripping off life-time payers.
I wonder if the classes in hellgate were the ones Blizz North were talking about when they had planned to make all new classes and no old ones in D3 before they left?
"One of the design choices which again shows Blizzard Irvine's hand in the changes made is the re-appearance of the Barbarian character class -- the original design documents for Diablo III included a set of all new character classes, with no reappearance of old character classes (our reasons for this was simple -- since we were enhancing and improving the skill system, we didn't want to try and adapt old skills into a new system -- we'd rather create all new skills for the new character classes. The return of the Barbarian class feels like a change that was made after development of the title was moved to Irvine 3 years ago."
Meh, didn't like the company anyways. Always trying to copy Diablo... Why couldn't they just come up with there own game ideas? Lazy? Quick buck? Well I bet they learned there lesson. Diablo 3 developement started before Hellgate: London ever existed. Yet hellgate:london was released a year ago. And Diablo 3 is still in developement. You can tell just by that they didnt put any thought into it. They just took abunch of Diablo stuff and tried to rehash it. Put it together and threw it out there.
Mythos is the same way but a lil more closer to the Diablo world and well even a lil funner. But yet again same thing as hellgate:london.
You do realize that they pretty much made the original games and really have more right to making Diablo like games than Blizzard does..?
Get real, folks, the diablo you all knew is dead, a few years ago i said right here in this forum that D3 had a pretty good chance of being blizzard first bust (i was flamed to death ofc), and what you know, its not even beta and its already looking that way.
I don't really care if they return or not. Blizzard knows what they want in D3 at this point, and so it is too late for any ex-devs to make a difference (whether or not that is good or bad is up to you).
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GIEV D3 INFOZ NAO!( <---Poster from the official Bnet Forums) "I'm sure that in time, every bit of her will be gone and her death will be a mystery... even to me."-Secret Window
I'd rather have Diablo 3 be in the hands of the original Blizzard North. Before you give me, HG:L and Mythos crap, let me explain. Ex-Blizzard North went off into SEPERATE game companies, jsut most of them joined Flagship. The tools that created Diablo probally wasn't available to them afterwards.
It is very sad. HG:L had great potential IMHO, but failed to hit the mark. It had some of the influences of Diablo all the way. I just found it..... monotonous and kind of dull. The creatures and enviroments graphics were EXCELENT, but not the NPC's and the character art itself. A salute to those guys for a valiant effort even if their dreams were dashed.
Not surprising considering how bad everyone says hellgate is. I guess the formula dark, gritty, full of pentagrams, and evil looking monsters can't make a game alone. It also ran like shit when it came out and the tetris inventory made it a hassle to handle loot in a quick manner. Oh and charging people a subscription and ripping off life-time payers.
Yeah, I saw the Ign review for that game. (6.8 out of 10)
Phew, that could have easily been Diablo 3.
I was actually looking forward to that that game as "The new Diablo" when I first heard about it. I mean it was being developed by most of Blizzard North.
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Souce: http://www.diii.net/n/672129/flagship-studios-closing
Discuss.
CyberPunk RP Nexus
Where there is truth, he must find.
Where there is destruction, he must rebuild.
Where there is love, he must protect."
World's Fair Exhibit
"God gave us memories, that in life's garden we may have June roses in December."
John Barrie
Mythos is the same way but a lil more closer to the Diablo world and well even a lil funner. But yet again same thing as hellgate:london.
98% of the teenage population does or has tried smoking pot. If you're one of the 2% who hasn't, copy & paste this in your signature.
http://www.diii.net/n/672129/flagship-studios-closing
If they really closed, I wish some of them return to Blizzard because they are the one that made D1&2.
Not a thing.
Cheers,
SmashBoy (going back to bed)
I wonder if the classes in hellgate were the ones Blizz North were talking about when they had planned to make all new classes and no old ones in D3 before they left?
"One of the design choices which again shows Blizzard Irvine's hand in the changes made is the re-appearance of the Barbarian character class -- the original design documents for Diablo III included a set of all new character classes, with no reappearance of old character classes (our reasons for this was simple -- since we were enhancing and improving the skill system, we didn't want to try and adapt old skills into a new system -- we'd rather create all new skills for the new character classes. The return of the Barbarian class feels like a change that was made after development of the title was moved to Irvine 3 years ago."
You do realize that they pretty much made the original games and really have more right to making Diablo like games than Blizzard does..?
They did make their diablo, it's called Hellgate and it failed. They are now going towards Mythos a more colorful game. Anyone find it funny there?
They also made our Diablo, and succeeded.
GIEV D3 INFOZ NAO! ( <---Poster from the official Bnet Forums)
"I'm sure that in time, every bit of her will be gone and her death will be a mystery... even to me."-Secret Window
http://www.diablofans.com/topic/34229-diablo-iii-beta-impressions/page__view__findpost__p__743763
Making Controversial points one post at a time!
Yeah, I saw the Ign review for that game. (6.8 out of 10)
Phew, that could have easily been Diablo 3.
I was actually looking forward to that that game as "The new Diablo" when I first heard about it. I mean it was being developed by most of Blizzard North.