Hellgate's US/EU servers and website slam shut
by William Dobson 
Feb 2nd 2009 at 9:00AM
Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Business models, Culture, Events, in-game, MMO industry, News items, Hellgate: London
The show is now over for the Hellgate: London that we once knew. The game's servers and the official website have poofed, and stranded fans will now turn their attention towards HanbitSoft's grand plans to revive the troubled title in a free-to-play format, complete with new content and gameplay changes. HanbitSoft's press release did not specify a date for the re-launch, nor did it say which territories it will be servicing, so we're looking at a bit of downtime for the moment.Scott from the Pumping Irony blog has written about his time spent online during Hellgate's final hours. Plenty of players turned up to see the "end of the world", and many donated their soon-to-be-worthless in-game currency to the War Drive NPC, granting buffs to the masses. Scott's transcript of the last few moments of chat are an indication of the kind of solidarity and sadness that the most faithful fans displayed as their world was crumbling around them. It's all on HanbitSoft now to save these folks from their Hellgate-less existence.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Leese said on 9:51AM 2-02-2009
Man.
I never played Hellgate, but it sounds like it was a game with a good community at least. It's funny how affecting that report was though, reading about a world coming to an end.
I guess it'll happen to all MMORPGs eventually...
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sc2071 said on 9:59AM 2-02-2009
I bought this game right at release and I'm sad to see that it has gone. I played a Hunter class. I believe one of the developement goals was to successfully merge the FPS feel Half-Life with Diablo like action. To this I think they were extremely successful. The Hunter was so so much fun to play.
While I'm back playing MMOs like WAR and WoW, the action, especially in PvE, just doesn't compare with the immersion that this mechanic provided. Despite all the other issues with this game, they really got it right making this class work and fun to play.
I hope some developer out there takes notice of how much more "action" there was in this RPG, and can successfully build a true "action"-MMORPG for us in the future.
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Draimen said on 10:46AM 2-02-2009
I didn't play Hellgate for too long. Just a couple weeks. But reading that really made me sad. Especially the chat at the end. lol
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Skypp said on 12:18AM 2-03-2009
The best original IP in MMO's IMO. I'm sort of getting tired of the sequels or franchise adaptations, sad to see something new be ended so soon
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Slaphead said on 6:02AM 2-03-2009
It's sad to see all the great potential going to waste. The game had a solid core concept, but the combination of bad leadership and incredibly stupid business model ended up dooming it. Either one on its own might not have been enough to kill the game.
For example, I remember reading a forum post by the main writer responsible for the story, in which he basically implied that he was drunk while writing the dialogue. Which I don't doubt at all. However, the failure to tell a coherent story could've been fixed later, if they hadn't run out of money because of the business model...
Another thing this game will be remembered by, is of course the incredible amount of hate it generated. A n epicenter of which is/was of course www.flagshipped.com. Personally I could relate to a lot of the stuff they said when the site was published, but it quickly degenerated into a maelstrom of feces-slinging and nonproductive vitriol. As a fine and recent example, a relatively neutral and slightly nostalgic comment I made two days ago on their newspost about HGL's closing is still stuck in their moderation system, while all the ha-has and turd-slinging seems to get through fine.
Interesting to see if the place will explode with all the hatred now that their target is gone, or will it all spill to other forums, like Cryptic's CO ones.
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