A Flagship representative contacted Gamasutra and confirmed that they have had significant staff cuts made but didn’t elaborate further.
More interestingly though is news that Korean-based Hanbitsoft is ”taking full control over the Hellgate” IP, something to which Flagship Studios proclaims is ”an outright lie.”
Fansite Hellgate Guru reported a translation a Korean news piece that Hanbitsoft, which is Hellgate: London’s publisher in the region, ”…is taking full control over the Hellgate: London intellectual property from Flagship Studios,” and intends to use an in-house team to continue work.
Flagship officially hit back with their response: ”This story is an outright lie. We have no idea where they are getting their information from and have asked legal counsel to pursue the issue… We are mystified by Hanbitsoft’s conclusions and any attempt to take over the IP will be met with a strong and swift response.”
All publicity is good publicity? To add even more spice to the mix an email claiming to be from U.S. attorneys representing Hanbitsoft have contacted Hellgate Guru requesting they remove their news story and pointed out the following:
”(1) HanbitSoft is an exclusive licensee of both Hellgate and Mythos in Asia, with rights to sublicense the games; (2) in addition, HanbitSoft is a secured creditor who has been pledged the Mythos (but not the Hellgate) intellectual property as collateral for a loan; (3) Comerica, another secured lender, has been pledged the Hellgate intellectual property as its collateral for a loan; (4) Flagship Studios does not currently own the intellectual properties to either game, which are held in separate companies subject to the security interests of lenders, and Flagship Studios’ interest in those companies is also pledged to its lenders; (5) it is unfortunate that Flagship turned down additional investments HanbitSoft offered to make that would have allowed it to keep its doors open, but HanbitSoft hopes to work with Comerica and some of the team at Flagship to see if there is a way to continue to generate content to keep Hellgate online in Asia and to finish the development of Mythos.”
Just what in the hellgates is going on over there?
If it weren’t bad enough London is burning, now the lawyers are involved.Source: Shacknews
