flagshipstudios
Latest
Former Flagshipers form Gravity Bear
Phil Shenk has become the latest to row ashore following the sinking of Flagship Studios, announcing the launch of a new development studio awesomely named Gravity Bear. Shenk will serve as the CEO, while according to Shacknews another Flagship survivor, former Hellgate: London senior software engineer Kevin Klemmick, has climbed aboard the dense grizzly as technical director. The studio is the third to emerge from Flagship's splintered remains, following the founding of Runic Games and Turbine's new Redwood City, CA branch in recent months. Nothing yet has been revealed regarding Gravity Bear's focus or future projects, though we have to wonder if the experience of being sucked into Flagship's financial hellgate was enough to sour the company on dabbling once more in anything remotely MMO.
Hellgate: London programmer claims staff leaving 'in droves'
Things are not well at Hellgate: London developer Flagship Studios according to Guy Somberg, an audio and gameplay programmer at the fledgling studio. Somberg wrote on his personal blog a month ago – which was recently dug up by GI.biz – that people are leaving the company "in droves" following the poor sales and negative feedback of its post-apocalyptic jaunt.Somberg does have some hope for the future (wait, isn't London occupied by demons in 2038?), saying that the game is doing well in Korea and has yet to start in China. He concludes that he likes the job, but that all the artists and programmers leaving the company is taking a toll on the future of Hellgate: London and Flagship as a studio. Well, we're hearing good things about Mythos ...
Mythos' Max Schaefer talks about the economics of free
Flagship Studios' action-adventure MMO, Mythos, will be free to download and free to play. How will they ever make any money off the game? Sure, they have an item shop, but will that be enough? In this interview, Mythos' Executive Producer Max Schaefer explains how they will make the game profitable through the economics of free, bringing a World of Warcraft-ish game into a MMO market that already has a WoW, and the rise of indie games.There's not a lot of new information in this interview, We might have asked why they didn't release Mythos as it was, and then release the Overworld as an expansion along with a lot of new content? How would they distinguish themselves from the rumored Diablo 3? What kinds of questions would you have asked about Mythos? If you can propose some really hard ones, we'll send them along and see if we can get some answers.
Hellgate: London finds success in Korea
Last year's launch of Flagship Studios' Hellgate: London was not exactly what we'd call a family album moment, its release plagued by client crashes and enough bugs to have the Orkin man calling for backup. Still, one person's trash is another's treasure, as Bill Roper and company have announced that in the two weeks since the Korean launch of the Hellgate beta more than a million accounts have been registered. According to Flagship, this makes the MMO the most successful online game launch in Korea in the past three years.Hellgate's beta officially kicked off in Korea on January 15, and according to Korean online game tracking service Gametrics, the game quickly found an audiences with gamers in PC Cafes, ranking ninth among online games, fifth among RPGs, and was the most popular beta being played. This was followed by a commercial release on February 22, a launch that Flagship boasts achieved "record sales," though it's a record that we're pretty sure will be broken soon enough.
Hellgate: London release date set for Halloween
Clever! What immediately springs to mind when you hear the word "hellgate"? Simple: it's a gate leading, ostensibly, straight to Hell where all sorts of freakish ghoulies live. Tack "London" on the tail end of that and you've got one scary-ass video game title. What better day to unleash Hellgate: London upon an unsuspecting world than October 31st, All Hallows Eve, Halloween! Unfortunately, despite having one of Europe's premier cities right there in the title, Europeans will have to wait until November 2nd (oh, that's not so bad) to play Flagship Studios debut title.That date is all they're sharing for now. If you're looking for details about that $10/month optional subscription-based service – featuring "huge amounts of content on an ongoing basis in the form of quests, character classes, demons, items, etc." – you'll have to wait some more. That information is "coming soon."
Optional Hellgate: London subcriptions set at $9.95 per month
Games for Windows Magazine (via Hellgate Guru) reports that the optional MMO mode in Hellgate: London will cost players $9.95 per month. The subscription service, provided in addition to a single-player campaign and basic online functionality, will benefit from a continuous stream of content from developer, Flagship Studios, as well as several other features. Compared to the once-off package, these include round-the-clock support services, a lack of server queues, four times the amount of characters allotted to each player, increased item storage, guild functionality and other typical MMO offerings. In essence, the monthly fee acts as a gateway to a different business model, netting you an "elite" version of the post-apocalyptic RPG. The absurdly lucrative business model that powers an MMO like World of Warcraft must be the ultimate temptation and source of envy to those publishing games in the more traditional vein. Whereas most transactions end once the game is purchased, consistent online universes have the player not only buy the game, but continue sending money month after month. Much like slipping on a patch of oil deposited on the driveway by your neighbor's recently discovered geyser, it's not a financial prospect you can easily ignore.
Hellgate London 'might' be subscription-based [update 1]
Flagship Studios' Hellgate: London will share many similarities with the typical MMO, including a subscription fee. Make no mistake, Hellgate's online component won't be a string of PvP deathmatch servers, no, included in the multiplayer experience will be an expansive social system that includes guilds and raid-type gameplay.Online, Hellgate will feature all of the single-player missions, plus additional modes, primarily focusing on group PvE instances -- limited PvP gameplay will be available at launch. Additional content will be continually provided by a dedicated team of developers. Sure sounds like an MMO, no?Update: Co-publisher EA has stated that the online pricing model has not been officially decided (more here).
Hellgate: London source code lifted?
Gamers With Jobs Press Pass passed along their scoop that the source code for Flagship Studios upcoming spiritual Diablo sequel, Hellgate: London, has been hacked right out of their network, like meat from the bone. Ex-Blizzard developer, and co-founder of Flagship Studios, Bill Roper stated "that while they have heard the same rumors they cannot confirm or deny that any code has been lifted from their servers." Can't he check? We'll wait ...... anyways, according to Press Pass' sources -- sources we can only imagine exist in the shadowy, illicit corners of the internet that our library filters won't let us anywhere near -- "the virtual break-in was conducted by a Chinese individual who is currently attempting to sell the code from a personal website." See, shadowy contraband getting pushed on the black markets of the internet ... it reads like a hackneyed beach thriller, but nerdier and not mass-marketable.Let's hope the team at Flagship doesn't follow the historical antecedent that Valve set when the source code for Half Life 2 was stolen in 2003: the already delayed title suffered another year of delays before being released in the fall of 2004. Then again, that delay ended with the release of a fantastic game, so we'll take that back. Half Life 2 is fine company to be in, delay or not. [Thanks, Shawn]
