14 DAY TRIAL // HanbitSoft Inc. has announced that it has acquired the full publishing rights for Hellgate on the North American, European and Japanese markets. The previous owner of the rights was Namco Bandai but it seems that the company thought the role playing game featuring MMO elements could not bring in a profit and decided to unload the intellectual property.
Hellgate: London was created by Flagship Studios, which was closed down in 2007, and generated quite a bit of initial hype. The idea was to offer both a single player and a multiplayer experience based around fighting demon spawn with both guns and blades.
The title was plagued by technical issues and poorly designed areas and, with losses mounting, the online element of the release was closed down. Now, HanbitSoft is interested in redesigning the game, emphasizing the MMO aspects, in order to re-launch it during the course of 2010, starting with China and Taiwan and then targeting North America, Europe and Japan.
The new game will be called Hellgate: Resurrection and is currently playable in South Korea under a free-to-play model. It's not clear whether the same model will be used for the MMO re-release in North America and Europe or whether HanbitSoft is thinking of introducing a subscription-based model for these areas. No clear release dates have been mentioned.
Kee-Young Kim, who is the Chief Executive Officer of HanbitSoft, stated that “We would like to thank NAMCO BANDAI Games America for allowing us to acquire the Hellgate publishing rights and are thrilled to have eager gamers worldwide return and enjoy the franchise. Hellgate: Resurrection is heading towards success in Korea such that we decided to push ahead with launching the game overseas next year. We will do our best to get the game to the fans as soon as possible.”