Hellgate: London finds success in Korea

17 Comments by Jason Dobson Apr 11th 2008 9:30AM
Filed under: Culture, PC, Action, Online, MMO

Last year's launch of Flagship Studios' Hellgate: London was not exactly what we'd call a family album moment, its release plagued by client crashes and enough bugs to have the Orkin man calling for backup. Still, one person's trash is another's treasure, as Bill Roper and company have announced that in the two weeks since the Korean launch of the Hellgate beta more than a million accounts have been registered. According to Flagship, this makes the MMO the most successful online game launch in Korea in the past three years.

Hellgate's beta officially kicked off in Korea on January 15, and according to Korean online game tracking service Gametrics, the game quickly found an audiences with gamers in PC Cafes, ranking ninth among online games, fifth among RPGs, and was the most popular beta being played. This was followed by a commercial release on February 22, a launch that Flagship boasts achieved "record sales," though it's a record that we're pretty sure will be broken soon enough.

Tags: beta, flagship, flagship-studios, flagshipstudios, hellgate, hellgate-london, hellgatelondon, korea, mmo

(Page 1) Reader Comments

Blazur: Apr 11th 2008; 9:55AM

Wow, more than a million people in Korea just got flagshipped.

rivaldi22: Apr 11th 2008; 10:01AM

One man's Flagship is another man's...NCSoft?

DemonGSides: Apr 11th 2008; 9:58AM

Fuck yeah Starcraft.

mocax: Apr 11th 2008; 10:05AM

Darn, my copy of collector edition Hellgate went out with the trash in February......

Ethan: Apr 11th 2008; 10:36AM

1. Tell them Microsoft Access is a text-based RTS
2. Give them your tax return and tell them it's 'enemy data.'
3. Make a healthy sandwich
4. uhhh.. profit?

Jerk Face v2.0 (MDF Edition): Apr 11th 2008; 12:59PM

Okay, seriously: That was one of the funniest comments I've ever read! I can't believe no one else complimented you! There is no sarcasm here. (+)

Ethan: Apr 11th 2008; 1:58PM

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/03/06/condemned-2-xbox-live-achievements-detailed/#comments

I have a fan!

Gerrick: Apr 11th 2008; 10:42AM

For everything that has been said about Hellgate and all of the flagshipping business, the game is actually pretty fun. Picked up back up recently myself, and I'm actually quite enjoying it, now that most of the crashes have been straightened.

I understand I'm kind of a sucker for this kind of game, but they've been doing a credible job of adding some much needed features and destroying the bugs. Try picking it back up, or better yet, wait another 6 months and try it then ;)

Sir Fidlious Wong (Zeon Defense Force): Apr 11th 2008; 12:53PM

I was gonna look into it in about 6 months, when I had more time for soemthing like this...

Lars: Apr 11th 2008; 3:16PM

I was under the impression that the bugs were pretty well worked out now. Almost all MMO's have had some major issues at launch. The only one I could think of that didn't was EQ2. But hell, WoW was teeerrrriibbble at launch, but now look at it! The most popular MMO of all time, ten times over.

Hellgate London is one of the first shooters to actually interest me in a long while. The only others are TF2(TF was one of my all-time favorites in the old days), Warhawk(which I bought on a fluke and found it to be damn near perfection), and UT3(which I have yet to buy --not sure if I should stick with PC or go for PS3).

Syxx: Apr 11th 2008; 11:22AM

Honestly, aside from NBA 2K8 (my addiction) Hellgate has been the game I've been playing the most for the last month or two. It has gotten much better since it launched. They keep adding new features and it it runs better. Sure, it's no Diablo 3 as they tried making it out to be, but it is a good action RPG with much loot droppage.

Rabidkeebler: Apr 11th 2008; 11:37AM

Has anyone played it without the subscription fees? Is it worth it? I've been wanting to play this game, but hesitant due to the gimped non-online play.

Gerrick: Apr 11th 2008; 12:07PM

Subscribers have been in arms over the lack of reason to subscribe since launch. The only thing you'll be missing is the Stonehenge Area, which has the end game boss for now (Molloch), but isn't necessary to log on and enjoy the main storyline and get to level 50.

Joeshie: Apr 11th 2008; 12:28PM

Not really that surprising.

Koreans tend to look over quality gameplay as long as it's got plenty of repetitive grinding to do.

Lars: Apr 11th 2008; 3:20PM

That's why Starcraft is a sport over there, right? I remember all that tedious grinding I did in Starcraft, and the lack of fun and well balanced gameplay.

potato: Apr 11th 2008; 1:00PM

Joeshie: Actually Hellgate's grinding isn't nearly as tedious as other games, including WoW. I play the Marksman class (or at least I used to...) and the fact that I have to AIM at my enemies automatically takes away the tedium. Clicking on an enemy and waiting for the virtual dice to roll is tedious.

That being said I really do wish they spent the effort to put in a real story...

drun: Apr 11th 2008; 10:12PM

I enjoy the game...(single mode)...but the story is a total piece of $h!t. the cutscenes are &#*$&%&@*! the graphic is nice, and I appreciate their effort to keep updating the game, not enough though.

however the skills are so not cool, where's that Amazon's multiple arrows? and the blizzard Sorceress creates? come on, at least give me multiple shots...

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