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The game will live on, but what about Flagship?

In a very long thread on the Hellgate Forums, a post has popped up from Zack "Ozuri" Karlsson, Sr. Business Development Director at Namco/Bandai. If someone from Namco/Bandai posting officially on the Hellgate forums wasn't odd enough, he had this to say:

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.

Huh, so it looks like Namco/Bandai will be taking over operation of Hellgate. They even have a page for the game on their official site now. But how will that work in a business sense? Flagship can't be selling the IP to Namco/Bandai - you can't legally sell something that is loan collateral without paying off the loan which would be suicide to Flaghship right now. They could be licensing the right to North American operations though, much in the same way they licensed HabitSoft for Korean operations.

Either way, I think there has to be money changing hands here somewhere, and probably in Flagships direction. If they can get enough, I think they'll pay off that loan from HanbitSoft and take their claims of ownership out of the question. I don't think they'll have enough for that though, which makes the most likely candidate for what to do with the money is to launch Mythos.

Ahh. I love evil plans.

You can find the forum thread here.