Posts Tagged ‘flagship studios’
Flagship Founder Joins Cryptic Studios
Former Blizzard Entertainment director and Flagship Studios founder Bill Roper has joined Cryptic Studios, the developer announced today.
He will serve as design director on Champions Online, the studio’s new MMO superhero title based on the Champions role-playing game.
Roper had previously founded the ill-fated Flagship Studios, which produced only one notable game – Hellgate: London – which wasn’t well-received by critics and consumers alike.
Champions Online is in development for release next year.
Hellgate to Close February 2009
It’s the end of the line for Hellgate: London, the only major output of the now-defunct Flagship Studios, as publisher Namco Bandai has announced that it will support the game’s servers through January 31, 2009, after which they will be shut down.
Online multiplayer for the action-RPG will continue to be free as a “further gesture of support”, noted the publisher, who saved the game’s servers back in July after the collapse of Flagship.
Flagship Studios was composed of mostly Blizzard veterans who had worked on the Diablo series. Thus, Hellgate: London was billed as a “spiritual successor to Diablo”, though it failed to live up to expectations.
Flagship "Barely Open"
Hellgate developer Flagship Studios has been going through a lot of trouble lately, but company CEO Bill Roper had stated that they won’t be shutting down despite having laid off most of its staff. However, ex-COO Max Schaefer has revealed that it is only open to take care of “final affairs.”
“It’s barely open,” he said. “It’s just open enough to take care of the final affairs, but for all intents and purposes it’s closed down.”
Former Mythos executive producer Travis Baldree added that Flagship is trying to “take care of debts and the employees in an orderly fashion, so Bill Roper and one or two other people have stuck around and are doing their best to get that done.” Schaefer, Baldree and the rest of the Mythos development team have since then reformed to create games under the banner of Runic Games.
The duo added that Flagship’s founders were working hard to prevent closure and that there were “very advanced” negotiations with a couple of people that would have kept the studio running.
Flagship Veterans Form New Studio
Following the demise of Flagship Studios, those responsible for the studio’s Mythos, a free-to-play MMORPG, have formed a new development company called Runic Games.
According to their press release, the team “intends to continue to use their expertise in the action-RPG MMO genre to create the best games in the market.” While no games were mentioned, more details are expected soon.
The Runic Games team features numerous industry veterans, including Travis Baldree, the creator of Fate and project director for Mythos, and Max Schaefer, co-founder of Blizzard North and Mythos executive producer.