Champions Online is offering up a special edition of its Ask Cryptic Q&A feature as design director Bill Roper steps up to field questions from the Champions Online Community. Roper covers queries on his personal background, experience and opinion as well as CO.

Roper brings new eyes to Champions Online with experience of playing running the original Champions pen and paper RPG. He also intends to impress his lessons learned from Hellgate: London on the Cryptic team.

Roper assures players that although specific details on the CO MMO are few and far between in the malleable alpha phase, Cryptic has plans to get word out as soon as elements start to stabilize. He’s particularly excited about the level of customization availible for character creation and the Nemesis System. Get the full scoop at the Champions Online website.

A recent letter via a HanbitSoft PR representative from the Hellgate London Project Manager raised hopes of fans on European and North American servers. According to the letter on HanbitSoft’s Game Espresso blog, Hanbit claims its U.S. division is working diligently on an update that will surpass The Abyss Chronicles that released in Asia. The game should be available on the Hellgate: London website. The letter also teases good news for fans coming soon.

Unfortunately, Namco Bandai community manager Diane Migliaccio has clarified the letter and confirmed that the update will not make it to these territories. Namco has exclusive rights to Hellgate: London in EU, NA and Japan. It’s choosing to permanently discontinue the game and deny Hanbit the opportunity to service those territories. Migliaccio’s FAQ on the Hellgate: London Forums gives this official explanation:

“Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of clarity we can offer here except to say that the extremely unfortunate closure of Flagship Studios put obligations, responsibilities, authority, and rights in a bit of a mess. We wish there were some hope to offer here, but, after careful consultation with all the relevant parties, we feel that this is the only path left.”

The news is unwelcome and the offered explanation is weak to say the least. Those players that payed for lifetime subscriptions and will not be getting a refund have the most right to be disgruntled. This is definitely an example of why lifetime subscriptions aren’t always the best choice unless you’re willing to take the loss if the game fails. At this point there isn’t much to be done about it unless players are willing to petition Namco Bandai for a different outcome.

This past Friday, an innocent question from a fan at one of Blizzcon’s Diablo 3 panels asking if Battle.net would remain free led to an unexpected — or, at least, unwanted — answer from the game’s lead designer, Jay Wilson: “We are looking to monetize Battle.net so that we get to keep making these games and updating features.”

Battle.net, for those who don’t know, is the online gaming platform used by many of Blizzard’s games, including StarCraft, Diablo, Diablo 2, and both Warcraft 2 and 3. Since its release alongside the original Diablo, Battle.net has always been completely free, which is what made Wilson’s answer so jarring.

Blizzard executive VP of game design, Rob Pardo, cleared up the comments while speaking with Joystiq. He made it clear that there’s no plan to do anything akin to Hellgate: London and Blizzard is absolutely not trying to turn Diablo into a subscription-based game.

With Battle.net we’re definitely looking at possible different features that we might be able to do for additional money. We’re not talking about Hellgate or anything like that. We’re not going to tack things on. I think World of Warcraft is a great example to look at. We charge people if they want to switch servers or if they want name changes, things that aren’t core to the game experience, they’re really just optional things that some people want. It takes us some development work to do it, so it makes sense to charge for it. We would never do something like say to get the full game experience, you’ll have to pay extra.

Is that enough reassurance for you? As a diehard Diablo fan, I could easily imagine being suckered into paying for optional things that I really don’t need — hopefully Blizzard will be gentle.

After several attempts to try and save the flailing Flagship Studios, COO and co-founder Max Schaefer, has admitted that “for all intents and purposes it’s closed down”.

Speaking in a GameCyte interview, Schaefer noted several deals to try to save the company fell through and that at present, the studio was only working on taking care of “final affairs” and nothing more.

“We were in very advanced negotiations with a couple of people for deals that would have kept Flagship open and would have kept everything running. And in fact, for a good while it was looking like a near-certainty that one of those would have come to fruition.

In the end, it was just too entangled to get a good deal in place, and so we had to close down. It was really kind of a wrenching, horrible period actually, and we learned a lot from it. We’d do things differently next time for sure.

We all were up all night, every night, not getting any sleep, working every day trying to get it to work out for everyone, and in the end it just didn’t.”

You may recall that the creators of Hellgate: London and the upcoming Mythos have been rumored to be in dire straits since June when programmer Guy Somberg posted a depressing piece on his personal blog about employees leaving the studio “in droves”. After retractions, denials, lay-offs and rumored buyouts, Asian publisher T3 Entertainment took over the developmental reins of Hellgate: London and Mythos in July and plan on trying to keep the MMOs going.

I never played Hellgate: London, but I was a participant in the beta for Mythos, and I have to say that I enjoyed it rather well. Hopefully, T3 can turn things around for both MMOs, especially for those who actually enjoyed Hellgate: London.

There’s a debate on Video Gamer Examiner on whether Diablo III can persevere where its spiritual successor Hellgate: London failed. The author starts off by saying he found Guild Wars and Hellgate, both products of various branches of former Diablo designers, disappointing.

The author cites replaybility as the key to Diablo’s popularity and Diablo III’s success.

In fact, the developers hinted that not only would we get our random dungeons, but we also might be seeing some random quests and/or events. This is way overdue! Dynamic quests are something I’ve been wanting to see for a long time and could really add a whole new level to the idea of replayability.

Asian publisher T3 Entertainment has taken over the development of Hellgate: London and Mythos. The fate of these two Flagship Studios titles has been in question since the studio laid off most of its staff.

T3 has set up a development studio in San Fransisco and has sent out the word that it’s hiring.

“T3 Entertainment is searching for creative minds to passionately continue development of Hellgate: London and Mythos, along with other new games, which are being published by HanbitSoft Inc.”

There’s no word on whether the remaining Flagship staff have been offered positions at this time. I guess they can apply just like everyone else. On the other hand, maybe a fresh perspective would do Hellgate some good.

via Gamasutra

With Flagship Studios having laid off most of its staff and put the Mythos beta on hiatus, Hellgate: London players have been unsure about the game’s future. Zack “Ozuri” Karlsson, Sr. Director, Business Development for NAMCO BANDAI Games America, Inc. has issued a notice to reassure Hellgate players that the gate to the Hell dimension will remain open despite Flagship Studio’s troubles.

Hello Hellgaters,

I know everyone is looking for an announcement, and we’d love to make one — but right now, many things are in flux and we don’t have all the information yet. As soon as we do, we’ll post here on the forums, on the website, and anywhere else we can find you.

In the short term, please do not worry. The game is up, the servers are not going away in the short term and any major changes to status will be communicated in advance.

I’d like to ask for your patience as we try to figure it all out and chart a new course. We value your community, your commitment, and your passion for Hellgate and we will make sure that any solution that we architect will support all of you as best as we are able.

Thanks again. We hope to have a real announcement shortly.

The most interesting part of the notice is that it is from NAMCO BANDAI rather than Flagship personnel. Flagship is partnered with NAMCO BANDAI, but this announcement begs the question of whether the company will take the IP and run with it if Flagship goes under.

via Hellgate London Forums

We (along with virtually everyone else in the media) jumped the gun a bit when we said that Flagship Studios had been closed, even though that certainly seemed to be the case. An official statement from the company has set the record straight, explaining that while most of the company’s staff has been laid off, the company remains open and still owns the rights to the IPs for both Hellgate: London and Mythos. As a result of the layoffs, Flagship won’t be accepting any further subscribers for Hellgate, and current subscribers will not be billed.

Here’s the official statement, straight from the Hellgate forums:

San Francisco, CA (July 14, 2008) — Flagship Studios has announced today that despite rumors to the contrary, the company is still operating.

“It is with deep regret that I must announce that Flagship Studios has laid off most employees. However, the core management and founding team members are still at Flagship.” said Bill Roper, CEO of Flagship Studios. “The past five years have been an incredible experience for us, but unfortunately, we couldn’t sustain the size of the company any longer.”

Flagship Studios owns the rights to all its technology and IP, including Hellgate: London and Mythos. Due to the current situation, Flagship will not be taking any new subscribers for Hellgate: London, and all current subscriptions will not be billed.

Flagship wishes to extend their heartfelt thanks to those that have supported the company and games over the past five years.

Flagship Studios’ Max Schaefer chatted with Eurogamer recently about Mythos, with a question eventually arising that asked Schaefer if he thought Mythos could ever become the biggest MMO in the world. He more or less sidestepped that question, but did offer up the idea that Mythos could possibly take down some of the big MMOs on the market.

Just not World of Warcraft.

“You always hope that something like that will happen, but it’s so unpredictable,” he said about the prospect of being the world’s biggest MMO. “What we really want to do is come out and provide a solid alternative to these games. We’re under no illusions. WOW had ten times the staff we did, took three times as long, had twenty times the budget – and those are pretty talented, hard-working guys as well, so to think that we could go straight head to head is probably unrealistic. However, what we can do is target it better and we can find out what the core gaming experience that people want is and really try to hit that. I think that the free model and the item sales model give us the potential to capture a lot more of an audience than if we had gone with a boxed product and subscription model.

“Can we take down the big boys? I think we can take down some of them. And I’d like to put a dent in the others.”

There were a lot of other interesting topics discussed throughout the interview, such as what Flagship Studios learned from Hellgate: London. He summed up the lesson pretty simply, saying, “[D]on’t try to do everything for everybody.”

As for the microtransaction items (the business model is that Mythos will be free to play, with small item microtransactions sustaining things), Schaefer once again provided some assurance that we won’t see people buy their way to the top — you won’t be buying the best sword in the game. In fact, it’s unlikely you’ll be buying any swords at all, or anything of the sort, for that matter.

“What we’re going to do instead is cosmetic things – funny hats and cool shirts, that sort of thing. We’re going to provide service-orientated things like being able to buy bigger Stashes or shared Stashes among your accounts, but then for gameplay itself what we’re going to sell to people is things like maps to dungeons that have more luck. So you’ll get slightly better drops in that dungeon, and maybe 15 per cent more experience,” Schaefer explains.

Doesn’t sound too bad. And in all honesty, I more than likely wouldn’t mind plopping down $1 or so for a badass hat for my character.

Looks like all the hoopla surrounding Guy Somberg’s blog post about trouble brewing at Flagship Studios was not so far off after all, despite denials to the contrary and allegations of media sensationalism.

Reports started surfacing yesterday about lay-offs at Flagship Studios, and Flagships’s Community Manager, Taylor Balbi, has revealed that all Ping0 and Flagship Studios staff have been given pink slips after having been notified that on Saturday (today) the offices will officially close down.

Now, here comes the rumors and denials part. Korean distributor HanbitSoft, has released a statement regarding intellectual property control:

“It is unfortunate that Flagship turned down additional investments HanbitSoft offered to make that would have allowed it to keep its doors open.”

HanbitSoft hopes to independently continue development of Mythos, to which it owns the rights due to a loan agreement with Flagship, and Comerica owns the Hellgate: London rights through a similar loan agreement, and plans to continue Asian development of the MMO through HanbitSoft.

Rumors regarding selling the rights to Mythos and Hellgate: London to EA (the American publisher) or other houses are spinning the net, but HanbitSoft has made a move that has the former Flagship head-honchos up in arms.

Over on Gamasutra they are reporting that the fan site Hellgate Guru has translated a Korean news report stating that HanbitSoft, “…is taking full control over the Hellgate: London intellectual property from Flagship Studios,” and that they will not only continue to publish the game in the region, but will also use in-house staff to continue with the development.

Thus, Flagship has responded, calling the HanbitSoft’s comments in the Korean news report an “outright lie” and have asked legal counsel to pursue the matter. Flagship also went on to state that any attempt to take over the IP will be met with a “strong and swift 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.”

Now, with the lawyers stepping in on all sides, HanbitSoft’s US lawyers have issued a statement:

“(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.”]

To add even more fuel to the fire brewing in the Flagship corners of Seattle and San Fransisco, an unidentified source had told Kotaku that developers for both Hellgate and Mythos have a “hope that they will all have their jobs back at the end of next week at a brand new company.”

That statement (if true) could mean that Flagship has indeed been bought out by another company – or it is just a a former employee hoping and praying that they get their job back someway, somehow. We are not sure what is exactly going on at this point, other than the death of Flagship Studios as we knew it. It is the weekend, and I am sure more information regarding what really happened will surface sometime Monday when all the news outlets and offices are back in business after the two day break.

For more information on all of this, you can hit all of the following links below.

Via: Gamasutra, VoodooExtreme, Kotaku, Evil Avatar