In a weblog post lamenting Hellgate: London's lack of success and describing the developer's work environment as "depressing," Flagship audio and gameplay programmer Guy Somberg claims that the studio's staff, including programmers, accountants, human resources personnel, and artists, has been leaving "in droves."

Somberg has since taken down the post but a cache of the page is still available. According to the programmer, Flagship's founders are still at the company but are working on projects outside of Hellgate: "The only one still actively on Hellgate is [technology director Tyler Thompson], but Tyler’s not programming anymore; he spends all of his time on management activities."

With rumors of even more artists and programmers planning to leave the Hellgate developer, Somberg commented, "Thing is, the way things are going I’m likely to be the only programmer still working on Hellgate left from the original crew."

Released for PCs in October, 2007, Hellgate: London's launch received criticism for its bugs, slowdowns, and crashes, among other issues. Somberg, however, has high hopes for the MMORPG in the Asian market: "Y

Once upon a time, gamers had the choice of either high fantasy or alternate fantasy if they wanted to play a massively multiplayer online game. And although it is certainly the case that the fantasy genre still dominates the MMOG market, several new games released this week aim to add a bit more spice to one of the fastest-growing sectors of gaming.

On the family-friendly front, Disney Online has released Pirates of the Caribbean Online. Inspired by the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced summer blockbusters, which themselves took root from the classic Disney theme-park attraction, the MMOG lets aspiring swashbucklers captain a ship, steal booty, slay undead, and otherwise build a legend as the most well-intentioned knave on the Seven Seas. The game is available for both the PC and Mac. Players can play for free in a limited-access, ad-supported version of the game, with full access being granted for a first-month fee of $ 4.95 and a $ 9.95 charge each month thereafter. It is rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older.

Playing off of the ghoulish frightfest that is (or at least used to be) Halloween, Flagship Studios has opened up Hellgate: London this week. Hellgate seeks to join first-person sh

Beta NDA Lifted

The NDA period for the general Beta test is officially over! THANK YOU all for being as good as you have been on this. Feel free to post, email, phone call, and alert your local news station about your play experiences!

How Our Beta Process Works

We wanted to take a few minutes to talk about how we run our Beta tests, the differences of and timing for getting builds out to the testers, and basically let you in on what makes our test tick.

Our development path is quite different from that of the vast majority of game developers. We utilize what we call an organic process, which is basically shorthand for our way of constantly iterating, tweaking, tuning, and making changes that are difficult to set months or years ahead of time in a traditional design document. When we get into the last 6 - 9 months of development time, this process really kicks into high-gear. We are making an immense amount of changes, both larg

The Unofficial Hellgate London website is reporting that Flagship Studios' hack-n-slash (or maybe shoot and explode) RPG, Hellgate London has gone gold and a single player demo will be released today.

Demons of London beware! Your reign of terror is officially coming to an end! Electronic Arts, Namco Bandai Games, and Flagship Studios are excited to announce that Hellgate™: London has gone to gold master and will be available exclusively for the PC on October 31st in North America and November 2nd in Europe.

"This has been an amazing journey for us and we couldn't be more proud of what we've accomplished," said Flagship Studios CEO, Bill Roper. "We're anxious to get Hellgate: London into gamers' hands and we can't wait to play right along with them."

And for those gamers who can't wait until Halloween to get their Demon-slaying on, Flagship Studios is releasing a singleplayer demo tomorrow, Thursday, October 18th.

Click http://http://www.hellgatelondon.com/ to confirm

The doors of hell will be opening for PC owners on October 31--the traditional date that ghosts are said to be able to make contact with the living--in North America.

Hellgate: London, which is made by some of the key developers of Diablo, has gamers play as a survivor of a demon invasion of London, battling the supernatural beasts and attempting to find some way to stop their takeover of the planet.

The title, which is published by EA and Namco Bandai, will also be released in Europe a few days later on November 2. For more on the game, please read GameSpot's interview with Flagship CEO Bill Roper.