Flagship Developer Feels Depressed About Hellgate: London

By Joe Haygood | June 10, 2008

Seems that as of late, working at Flagship Studios is not a lot of fun. Guy Somberg, one of the developers on the less than successful Hellgate: London game mentioned in a blog post that he was “depressed” with people leaving, the poor sales of Hellgate and having a derogatory term created for the poor release state of your game (”flagshipped”).

Funny thing is that the blog post was pulled shortly after it was put up on the site, but IncGamers was able to get a copy before it was pulled.

The post itself is an interesting read about what can go on in the mind of a person that pours a lot of ther heart and soul into a game, only to be crushed by poor reception of the title, and worse, unending criticism from the very fans of the game

Kotaku, has some follow upon the situation as well, as they got in contact with Ivan Sulic, web manager, marketing coordinator and site writer at Flagship Studios. He stated that there have been some coming and going, but they still have over 100 people on staff working on both Hellgate: London and Mythos. He stated that most of the employees that have left were for promotional reasons, and not due to a malaise at Flagship Studios. Guy Somberg also chimed in, stating that the blog post he had written more for family and friends that the public (why write it on a public blog then), and that things are not as dismal as some gathered from the initial blog post.

Hmm, maybe its just me, but it sounds like somebody opened up a can of marketing spin over at Flagship Studios. Sad thing is that Hellgate: London plays pretty well now that it is patched up, and Mythos is getting rave reviews, but no one will pay attention, due to the poor taste that Hellgate’s inital launch left in their mouth.