Future of Mythos beta uncertain

by Matt Warner Jul 16th 2008 at 8:30AM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Forums, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Mythos

Mythos beta testers are experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions as they await official word on what will happen to Mythos. The bad news struck Friday, July 11th. It was confirmed that the ranks were culled as layoffs (over 30 confirmed at VE3D's count) occurred at Flagship Studios, developers of Hellgate: London and Mythos. Staff at PingO, an online services subsidiary felt the impact too. To help shed some new light there is a response from Travis Baldree, Lead developer on Mythos.

In a post entitled, "A Fond Farewell" Baldree espouses gratitude to the Mythos beta community, the close relationship between employees, and does not disclose any specific details on the future of Mythos. Baldree is also unsure of how long Mythos in its current beta form will remain operational, but claims he will inform the community when possible. While Baldree did hint at reopening beta testing in the future, the question regarding on who owns the intellectual property and rights is probably going to be decided in a legal battle. Other developers that worked on Mythos also posted their farewells and appreciation to the beta community in the same thread. (We have copied Baldree's post after the jump in case the forums shutdown.)

[Via Warcry]

"Well, it's an interesting few days here for all of us. It's just been killing me not to post until now, but I really needed to wait until some things were settled and announced. As you may or may not know Flagship Studios laid off almost all employees effective friday - you should be able to see the press release in the Announcements. Now, on the face of it, that really does sound like the end of Mythos as we know it - but we have a tight-knit team that feels like family and hopes to stick together. Unfortunately, I can't speak at any real length about our immediate plans just yet - but let's say that we hope to have you back up and Beta testing for us in one way or another sometime soon.

You've been an incredible community that we've all felt priveleged to be a part of, and we're not quite ready to let go of that little family just yet. No matter the outcome, this has been a fantastic experience, and I and the team would like to thank each and every one of you for the tireless hours of testing and discussion you've undergone, and the uniquely friendly community spirit that you all helped foster. It's been a treat every step of the way.

So, I'm not exactly sure how long Mythos in its current form will remain up, since it is effectively a testing server. I'll try to get you that information as soon as I can.
In the meantime, I know the rest of the team would love to post their farewells and thanks to all of you. We'll try to keep you as up to date as we can in one way or another.

Thanks again to all of you - and I hope to be seeing all of you online again very, very soon."

Travis

Tags: betas, breaking, farewell, flagship, flagship-studios, hellgate-london, mythos, new-titles, travis-baldree

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

recursive said on 9:31AM 7-16-2008

What I don't get is that over on the Hellgate forums Flagship posters were still claiming the IP was theirs upto Monday.

http://forums.hellgatelondon.com/showthread.php?t=107367

So many conflicting statements out there now.. I understand this must be a tough time, but the communication needs some work if they want to make any kind of restart.

If it's all charade just tell people. Lots of love for Mythos out there, I think we're all feeling for them, can't really go wrong. Well.. more wrong than things are now..

Blair said on 12:48PM 7-16-2008

Mythos had a bright future. I hope that whoever ends up owning it isn't clueless and realizes that it has great buzz and potential behind it. I alternated between playing various other games and Mythos. I was either playing WoW and Mythos, or AoC and Mythos, or even MOO2 and Mythos - at one point even HG:L and Mythos LOL. Mythos was the constant.

If they fold it up or muck it up, it will be a real shame.

Kudos to the Mythos team, I hope your baby is not dead.