Troubled MMO Hellgate: London Gets Free-To-Play Resurrection

Earnest Cavalli

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Troubled MMO Hellgate: London Gets Free-To-Play Resurrection



Despite the catastrophic failure of its first attempt, Hellgate: London has been granted another chance to crack the North American gaming market.

Before we get to the actual story however, you may require a bit of backstory.

Circa 2007 Hellgate: London was a wildly anticipated massively multiplayer action RPG. The development team responsible for the game was headed by a group of ex-Blizzard Entertainment employees who had worked on the Diablo series, and fans were hoping they could translate that same kind of addictive gameplay into the online space.

Unfortunately, the game suffered a rocky launch. Patches to fix Hellgate's numerous (if not entirely atypical for the genre) bugs were announced and then never released. Fans began losing faith in the developer, and many jumped ship back to MMO stalwart World of Warcraft.

In 2008, Flagship Studios declared bankruptcy, and shuttered its doors. Publisher Namco Bandai attempted to provide support for the game's existing playerbase, but the game was mortally wounded and its remaining US servers were taken down in January of 2009.

It's tragic, but don't mourn the game just yet. During the fall of Flagship, Korean publisher Hanbitsoft purchased the rights to Hellgate: London. Previously the firm had been the Korean distributor for the game, and sensing a still-viable fanbase, Hanbitsoft refused to let the game die.

Surprisingly, Hellgate thrived in the Southeast Asian market.

Fast forward to modern times, and Hanbitsoft has acquired the rights to publish Hellgate: London in North America. According to a press release issued this morning, "the game will launch as a free-to-play MMO in closed beta from June 3rd to June 5th."

As far as I can tell, the game is essentially the same title that Flagship released four years ago. Even the new Hellgate site seems straight out of my memories [http://hellgate.t3fun.com/] of the original launch. The key change of course, is that this new iteration doesn't require gamers to pay a monthly subscription fee to shoot demons with their pals.

Will that be enough to resurrect Hellgate: London, or is the game doomed to crash and burn yet again?

Answer: Who cares? Free is free, and come June you'll suddenly have another outlet for your demon-shooting fantasies.

If your interest is piqued, you can find more info on the game's YouTube channel [http://www.facebook.com/HellgateGlobal?closeTheater=1].

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Jumwa

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Jun 21, 2010
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I have had a morbid curiousity about wanting to play this game since just before it crashed and died, but never did.

I suppose I'll get my chance shortly.
 

cainx10a

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May 17, 2008
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I loved that game. Now I miss my Voodoo sniper rifle, used to one-shot every bad demon with my bros. Good times.
 

evilstonermonkey

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Oct 26, 2009
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I actually really enjoyed the original release of this, though I never played it online. I might just have to keep an eye on this one. And as stated, free is free.
 

Blind0bserver

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Mar 31, 2008
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Huh, and all this time I thought the game died and then regenerated "Doctor Who" style and turned into Borderlands.
 

Tsaba

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Oct 6, 2009
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I dunno, lots of potential in a game like that, I might have to try and get back into it.
 

maddog015

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Wonder if they'll give any bonuses to people who own the physical game before its crash...never had a chance to play it back then, but I'll give it a shot this time around.
 

uppitycracker

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Oct 9, 2008
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what? why would they do that? it's like resurrecting a homeless dude. nobody missed him, nobody wants him around anymore, just let him rest in peace....
 

Starke

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As I recall, the original game was also free to play... sorta. It had a premium version which was supposed to gain access to new content, but just playing the main campaign was something you could do for free... assuming you'd picked up a boxed copy, but still.
 

Assassin Xaero

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Jul 23, 2008
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Hmm... I was just about to buy that game sometime soon too, I enjoyed the demo a lot... wait... it was a pay for MMO? Kinda glad I didn't buy it then, especially now since it is going to be free to play...
 

fix-the-spade

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Feb 25, 2008
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I see no reason Hell Gate can't carve itself out a niche in the MMO market.

Back then it was basically a really good game, except for the horrendous number of minor but annoying bugs. It was quite good fun and had plenty of violence (more than WoW) and interesting weapons.

With it going down the F2P route I can see lots of people trying it out, once the bugs were fixed it was a lot better and it's down fine round Korea way. Not a WoW damager by any means but I hope it does well this time.
 

Abedeus

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I liked that game. It was pretty fun, after few patches. I especially liked the elemental weapons...
 

Korten12

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Aug 26, 2009
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fix-the-spade said:
I see no reason Hell Gate can't carve itself out a niche in the MMO market.

Back then it was basically a really good game, except for the horrendous number of minor but annoying bugs. It was quite good fun and had plenty of violence (more than WoW) and interesting weapons.

With it going down the F2P route I can see lots of people trying it out, once the bugs were fixed it was a lot better and it's down fine round Korea way. Not a WoW damager by any means but I hope it does well this time.
Yeah it was a good game, so many fantastic memories of playing it.

Hope they do what they did for APB and let us recover our old characters. :D
 

ragestreet

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I like games that are free to play unless they have items that you have to pay real money for that are basically instant win buttons.
 

v3n0mat3

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I only tried the Demo for the original. So, for the sake of curiosity, I will give this a shot.
 

Panzervaughn

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yes, original hellgate was Freemium. If you didn't pay the subscription you got 3 of the 9 or so classes, and couldn't paint your armor, or something. The Cairn Stones expansion was for subscribers only, as well.

You may recall Penny Arcade's comic about it, "Elite players may devour freeplayers, Free players may not speak to Elite players, even if they trick them by saying "Freeplayusersayswhat?"
 

icame

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Aug 4, 2010
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I might even try it out considering the price range. It could be good...or at least that cg trailer was, and that's what I'm going on.