Hellgate coming back as free-to-play game

A game that became one of the biggest failures in PC game history is finally coming back to US shores in a new form. Hellgate London, the fantasy action-RPG from the now defunct Flagship Studios, is being relaunched in the US market as a free-to-play game via T3 Entertainment, Redbana and HanbitSoft. The new version is simply being called Hellgate and a closed beta for the new version is being held from June 3-5. You can get more info on how to sign up for the beta test at the game's official web site.

The saga of Hellgate London began with the formation of the game's developer Flagship Studios in 2003. The studio was formed by some of the key team members who previously worked at Blizzard on the first two games in the popular Diablo action-RPG series. Hellgate London was officially announced in 2005. The game's premise was that a few decades in the future, the city of London is being invaded by demons and creatures via dimensional portals and it was up to the player to fight off the invasion.

Flagship secured a co-publishing deal with Namco Bandai and Electronic Arts for Hellgate London and it became one of the most anticipated PC games while it was in development. However when the game was finally released in 2007 it suffered from mixed reviews, mainly because the game had a number of technical issues and bugs that showed that it was rushed to release. Sales were impacted by the reviews and issues and in 2008 Flagship closed its doors. The rights to Hellgate London were sold off to Korea-based Hanbitsoft who relaunched the game as a free-to-play title in its native country in 2009. Hanbitsoft later announced it had acquired the North American publishing rights to the game from Namco Bandai.