Release Date Set For Hellgate: London

If you’re itching to get your hands on Hellgate: London, you’ll be happy to hear that EA and Flagship Studios have finally locked down a release date for the upcoming action RPG. Hellgate: London will hit the shelves in North America on October 31, 2007 and in Europe on November 2, 2007.

If you’re not familiar with Hellgate: London, it’s being created by former members of Blizzard North, including Diablo series creators Erich Schaefer and former President David Brevik. The game will drop players into a fictional, post-apocalyptic London that has been overrun by a demon army. Hellgate will also incorporate some first-person shooter elements into its action RPG style.

The one big question mark for Hellgate is the fact that they have decided to implement a paid tier of online play. Basically, players can play for free, but players who pay a subscription fee will get access to ongoing content updates, more monsters, more weapons, and more high-level dungeons and quests. Paid accounts will also receive 9 additional character slots, access to a Hardcore mode, special PvP arenas, and the ability to bypass server queues. In addition, only paid accounts can create guilds or become guild officers.

Now, I have no qualms with a pay-to-play model. Heck, I’ve singlehandedly helped finance the Blizzard explosion. My question is this: Does allowing free players and paid players to play together relegate the free players to the status of second-class citizens? To my mind, I think it does. Is it game-breaking? I don’t know. Will it prevent the game becoming wildly popular? I believe it will. I’d like to know what you think, so tell us in comments!

You can check out the full Press Release on this announcement after the jump. If you’d like more info on Hellgate: London, check out the news here on Gaming Today, and take a look at the Hellgate page at Wikia.

EA AND NAMCO BANDAI GAMES ANNOUNCE OCTOBER 31st RELEASE DATE FOR HELLGATE: LONDON

The Next Benchmark in Action Role Playing Games will Start Lighting Up PCs this Halloween

Redwood City, Calif. – August 6, 2007 – Get ready to hack, slash, and shoot your way through a demon-infested London this Halloween! Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) and NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. today announced that Hellgate™: London, the premier title from Flagship Studios, will start hitting retail stores in North America on October 31, 2007 and in Europe on November 2, 2007 for the PC. Hellgate: London represents the next leap in the evolution of the action RPG genre, combining the depth and addictive gameplay of traditional RPGs with the visceral action of first-person shooters.

“We wanted to hit the sweet-spot for release in terms of the development schedule and delivering the highest-quality game to our players,” said Bill Roper, CEO of Flagship Studios. “Halloween was the perfect fit as it ensures that Hellgate: London will have an appropriate amount of beta testing, while also being an incredibly fun time to unleash the game.”

One of the most anticipated PC games and RPGs of the year, Hellgate: London offers infinite re-playability with dynamically generated levels, items, enemies and events. The player creates a heroic character, completes quests, and battles through an innumerable amount of demons to advance through a deep, rich story-driven campaign. A robust, flexible skill and spell system, highly customizable appearances, and a massive variety of randomly generated equipment allow each player to create his or her own unique hero.

While some may prefer to slay demons solo, players will also be able to take the fight online*, teaming up with friends to save London in a secure, client-server environment and playing through the entire story-driven campaign for free. For those players who want to extend their Hellgate: London experience, Flagship is offering an optional subscription service which will give players access to huge amounts of content on an ongoing basis in the form of quests, character classes, demons, items, etc. More details about Hellgate: London’s online options are coming soon.