Speaking at the GDC, ex-Flagship exec Stephen Goldstein dishes on why the company and its game Hellgate failed so utterly by the end.
They should have raised more capital, which would have provided them the ”ability to delay the launch” of Hellgate. Reckons full subscription billing would have kept Flagship alive today.
”Everything was solely plan A. There was no plan B,” admits Goldstein at his keynote. The ”company-killing moment” was when they didn’t take the time to acquire more funds.
”It’s my guess that we could have probably raised 25 to 30 million dollars to just stick in a coffer and wait. It would have provided us the ability to delay the launch of the title. We needed another four months, possibly five, to get things polished. And we just could not take it.”
Hellgate: London was an odd mix of free and subscription-based play, essentially they overstretched themselves with a colossal launch worldwide in multiple languages in what became two separate games.
”The issue that we had with Hellgate London was that it was a boxed product, it was sold at retail, it had a free singleplayer version, and then it had a subscription,” he said.
”What we probably should have done is just piss off our community up front and say you know what, it’s going to be a subscription. All of us were very concerned about consumer perception, rather than if money was going to be coming through the door.”
Despite the eventual failure of the whole thing and the closure of Flagship, the fact that the studio team managed to pull something off should be applauded said Goldstein.
”The fact that it was in the box really is a testament to the team that we had. They didn’t get the credit that I think they deserved, because with the amount of challenges that we faced, they pulled through.” Were you a Hellgate fan?
Source: Shacknews
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