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Source: http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53581Following up on word of significant layoffs at Hellgate: London (PC) developer Flagship Studios, reports are now circulating that the studio has shut down and all employees have been let go.
Flagships community manager Taylor Balbi apparently informed Voodoo Extreme of the studio's closure, revealing that three of the studio's executives used their personal funds to provide employees with 30 days of pay.
Formed by the ex-Blizzard North staff responsible for the acclaimed Diablo series, Flagship released its first title, the action-RPG Hellgate: London, last fall. Another action-RPG, Mythos, was still under development.
The closure also applies to ping0, an online publishing and hosting company created by Flagship and Korean publisher HanbitSoft.
With its doors shut, Flagship has relinquished its rights to the Hellgate: London and Mythos action-RPG franchises. HanbitSoft now owns the Mythos intellectual property, while Comerica Bank gets Hellgate: London per a past loan agreement.
"It is unfortunate that Flagship turned down additional investments HanbitSoft offered to make that would have allowed it to keep its doors open," a HanbitSoft lawyer told Hellgate Guru.
"HanbitSoft hopes to work with Comerica and some of the team at Flagship to see if there is a way to continue to generate content to keep Hellgate online in Asia and to finish the development of Mythos."
While the situation isn't looking too good for Flagship and its former employees, an anonymous tipster informed Kotaku of "hope that they will all have their jobs back at the end of next week at a brand new company."
