Hellgate: London is set to make a triumphant return. The game developed by former Blizzard employees was taken offline following a disastrous launch in 2007 and a very public battle over the game's myriad of ongoing technical problems. The game was operated in North America by Namco Bandai Games, who eventually decided it was in its best interest to pull the plug on the game in February 2009. The rights were eventually picked up by Hanabitsoft in 2010.
Now Hanabitsoft will relaunch the game as a free-to-play MMO, relaying on micro-transactions for in- game content instead of a monthly subscription fee. The company announced plans to kick off a closed beta that will run June 3 - 5, with a full North American release planned for sometime later on down the road.
No further details were revealed.
Many of the developers that worked on Hellgate: London went on to bigger and better things. Several former Flagship employees went on to form, Runic Games, who created the popular Diablo-esque action RPG Torchlight. Recently they released the game on Xbox Live Arcade. The company is currently working on a sequel to Torchlight, as well as a free-to-play Torchlight-based MMO.
Source: Eurogamer
