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EA To Publish Hellgate London

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the long-time-coming dept.

The long-awaited release of Hellgate London, from Flagship Studios, will be handled by Electronic Arts. The Escapist newsroom reports that EA will do sales, marketing, and distribution of the game, while Namco Bandai will handle toys, novels, comics, etc. From the article: "Future games in the series were not listed as part of the deal, despite Namco's tradition of partnering with EA for publishing software in Europe. In Asia, Flagship Studios inked deals with South Korean publisher and developer HanbitSoft to handle distribution and San Jose developer Online Game Services Inc. to assist in maintaining the online world." Future games? How about they release the first one before we start talking about sequels.

27 comments

  1. Meaning by steveo777 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It will be released far too early. It will be very buggy, it won't really resemble what the creator intended, and it will have far too many sequels.

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    1. Re:Meaning by thepotoo · · Score: 0, Troll
      Exactly that is far too likely to happen. EA takes some sort of sadistic pleasure (perhaps we could call it profit) from taking a decent game and creating hundreds of crappy tie-in sequels for it.

      I for one was looking forward to Hellgate London (as in, checking their website every day, and googling constantly for new rumors), but, right now I'm probably going to reconsider pre-ordering it. In fact, I probably won't even buy it out of my longstanding hatred for EA (there's always bittorrent).

      Nice one, Flagship. Way to lose sales from your most devoted fans.

      --
      Obligatory Soundbite Catchphrase
    2. Re:Meaning by Bieeanda · · Score: 1

      As much as I'm inclined to agree... I can't. EA does treat most of its licenses and developers like shit, but there are noteworthy exceptions like Maxis. Given that Hellgate's being developed by the guys behind Diablo, they may have the sense to keep their hands off this golden goose too. We'll have to wait and see how the game fares after launch.

    3. Re:Meaning by Clazzy · · Score: 1

      You'd think that, but look at Westwood and Bullfrog. Where are they now, one might ask?

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      If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards... Checkmate.
    4. Re:Meaning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's easy to say that EA "destroyed" those studios but the reality is much more complicated. And ugly. You could argue that EA didn't make enough hands-on management decisions and simply allowed those studios to burn money and run themselves into dead ends, and it'd be a good argument, because that's what happened. EA gave its purchased studios a lot of rope, and many of them hung themselves with it.

    5. Re:Meaning by Endo13 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      EA did destroy "those studios". In the last 10 years or so, pretty much everything EA has released has been bug-ridden garbage. Studios that previously (before they published under EA) had excellent games followed up with trash under EA. And the games that EA themselves have developed recently are the worst of the lot. It's bad enough now that I won't even try their new games that would interest me if published by anyone else.

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    6. Re:Meaning by tlhIngan · · Score: 1
      It will be released far too early. It will be very buggy, it won't really resemble what the creator intended, and it will have far too many sequels.


      You forgot it will install spyware and have in-game ads, too.
    7. Re:Meaning by WilliamSChips · · Score: 1

      Well, I think a former Westwood employee who is now at some high level at EA is trying to save the burning corpse of Command and Conquer from Generals...

      --
      Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
    8. Re:Meaning by Half+a+dent · · Score: 1

      Of course it could have in game ads - it's set in a "real world" environment (OK so the gates of Hell haven't opened quite yet but London has billboards!).

      But how many companies would want their products associated with Hell, demons and the end of the world?

    9. Re:Meaning by Half+a+dent · · Score: 1

      "It's bad enough now that I won't even try their new games that would interest me if published by anyone else."

      I wouldn't go that far. But I do read plenty of reviews first before purchasing EA games.

    10. Re:Meaning by Markspark · · Score: 1

      after reading all of the comments.. i beg to differ.. I'm quite happy with the NFS series from EA.. and honestly.. sure.. i miss ye good olde days, but claiming that all EA released games are crap, are like saying that the entire Bush government is crap.. i mean.. there has to be some exception, RIGHT? RIGHT! (But sadly, Colin got fired)

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      i find your lack of faith in science disturbing!
    11. Re:Meaning by FirienFirien · · Score: 1

      Umm.... Nike boots of swiftness? Advertising doesn't have to be billboardy, remember...

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      Browsing with +2 to insightful posts and a higher threshold makes the average post seen seem a lot more ingenious
  2. You did expect this... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Future games? How about they release the first one before we start talking about sequels.

    I heard "Hellgate London: Global Warming" is supposed to be a good sequel.

    1. Re:You did expect this... by IflyRC · · Score: 1

      Is that the one where you play Al Gore and try to make as many presenations as you can while being attacked by armies of undead SUV drivers?

    2. Re:You did expect this... by Nanpa · · Score: 0

      I thought he was already appearing in the new port of 'Vice-Presidential Action Rangers'

  3. yep by thejrwr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    this is kinda the same with God Of War, they where talking about GoW2 before the first was released, guess they think the game will do SOO well that they can make even more money off the game

    1. Re:yep by Cadallin · · Score: 1

      Well, God of War was a pretty cool game, and Hellgate: London looks pretty awesome as well, although I'll only buy it if it is ported to the 360.

  4. Queue Vader. by flitty · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nooooo!... (and such, you know the joke)

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    Whether or not there is some sort of god, I'm not supposed to say/god is a word and the argument ends there-Smog
    1. Re:Queue Vader. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Vader must be working at EA, and just heard that he'd be working through Christmas.

  5. Ky? by crossmr · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Does it come with a tube of KY jelly?

    1. Re:Ky? by crossmr · · Score: 1

      Off-topic? I think that is an honest question anytime EA gets a hold of a franchise and tries to do something with it. One success in a dozen tries doesn't warrant any optimism.

    2. Re:Ky? by Lex-Man82 · · Score: 1

      In the old days they were pretty good with companies, they had origin and bullfrog who would turn out great game after great game now they just seem to destroy good companies.

  6. Noo! by DimGeo · · Score: 1

    Let's hope this will not be the last game of flagship studios...

  7. NO by DarkestDream · · Score: 0

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! ! *echoes* dangit! i was hoping EA wont even touch that game, now i am reconsidering it, if EA sell those, F-O-R-G-E-T I-T!

  8. Relocation? by KDR_11k · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I've seen US publishers force games to be "relocated" (i.e. have their setting moved) to some US city even when it makes no sense (fighting a Soviet occupation of New York instead of some country actually occupied by the SU?). Wouldn't surprise me to see this turned into Hellgate New York. Okay, the game may be a bit too far along for that, I guess they'll leave Hellgate New York, Hellgate Miami and Hellgate LA for the sequels.

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  9. Sequel talk? by iainl · · Score: 1

    No, this is a financial and legal agreement. The question of how this affects any possible sequel is bound to come up, just as the question of ports to hardware that doesn't currently exist, Film rights and God only knows what else. Lawyers don't just ignore these things.

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    "I Know You Are But What Am I?"
  10. Soviet occupation of NY? by Zoshnell · · Score: 1

    Dude, that was the point of the game, y'know, whole alternate reality, soviet took over Europe and Asia already?

    Unless you weren't talking about Freedom Fighters...

    --
    "Do you suppose that's why God lives in the Heavens? Because he lives in fear of His creations?" - Steve Buscemi