Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Hellgate: London lives once more, thanks to a new and mysterious savior: Namco-Bandai.
A Senior Director of Business Development for Namco-Bandai posted in the official Hellgate forums about this recent twist in Hellgate’s fate:
Hello Hellgaters,
I know everyone is looking for an announcement, and we’d love to make one — but right now, many things are in flux and we don’t have all the information yet. As soon as we do, we’ll post here on the forums, on the website, and anywhere else we can find you.
In the short term, please do not worry. The game is up, the servers are not going away in the short term and any major changes to status will be communicated in advance.
I’d like to ask for your patience as we try to figure it all out and chart a new course. We value your community, your commitment, and your passion for Hellgate and we will make sure that any solution that we architect will support all of you as best as we are able.
Thanks again. We hope to have a real announcement shortly.
Lo and behold, Hellgate is also already posted on Namco-Bandai’s game list as well, though no mention of it is on their front page. Initially I thought it was strange to have age verification to reach the game description page when the official site does not, but after browsing their site it seems they merely use ESRB ratings as a guideline and all M-rated games use the age verification. The site does set a session cookie however, so visitors only have to play the age verification mini-game once per visit.
Tags: MMO Gaming
on 
on 
Entries (RSS)
This is good news it means that one of my favorite anger releasing games will still be around. And I didnt lose my Guardian to boot!
Add me to your IM then and let me know when you’re venting frustration by blowing demon heads off. I’m dying to see how grouping works already!
I know you canceled your XBL Gold but… that just takes you down to Silver right? Add me to your XBL friends too, ya git! =D
WTH?
So, like…what the heck? This is bizarre indeed.
Will this game make it or not? Wonder if the online component can be made free. That would better in my opinion.
I would probably even play once in a while.
The online game has always been free, but some (not all, not by a long shot) content was subscriber-only. Ever since the IP was taken from Flagship last week, subscriptions were suspended and all content is freely playable by everyone.
UPDATE: My previous comment may not be entirely accurate. I’m too lazy to bother checking the forums for verification (if such a thing as “verification” can occur on forums…) but there has not been a client patch since the fiasco. I’m hearing complaints about the shared storage (bank) for example: it was previously a subscriber-only feature, however now that subscriptions are unavailable, non-subscribers still cannot access shared storage. I don’t know if that’s a server setting or if a client patch is involved, but if that’s the case then it may be logical to assume former non-subscribers may not be able to enter former subscriber-only content such as Stonehenge.
My marksman is *this close* to level 16 as of this morning, which is great but still nowhere near any high-end content like that. I just completed “Act 2″ whatever that is?