Lowering the Flag at Flagship Studios?

Now that the Diablo 3 rumors are finally grounded in truth, new rumors must suffice. Today's centers around massive layoffs at Flagship Studios, Mythos and Hellgate: London developers.

Several sites are reporting that Flagship has laid off "nearly everyone":

Gamasutra has received confirmation from a Flagship Studios representative that the Hellgate: London developer has seen significant staff cuts.

This morning, Gamasutra obtained information from a source close to the company indicating that staff at both the Flagship development team as well as online services subsidiary Ping0 were let go. Both companies operate out of the same building.

Flagship declined to go into further detail about the layoffs, beyond stating that there was truth to the reports.

Hellgate: London was released last October to favorable-skewing reviews, but was plagued by notorious launch issues and certain major gameplay criticisms. The company's core founders were comprised of former Blizzard North developers responsible for the Diablo games, and Hellgate was intended as a spiritual successor to those titles.

The news comes despite claims by co-publisher Electronic Arts that Hellgate has over one million active subscribers - being particularly successful in Korea. (via Gamasutra)

It will remain to be seen whether or not Hellgate will be able to continue and if/when Mythos, currently in development, will ever see the light of day beyond its current beta stage. It would be a shame to see either leave the gaming stratosphere.

Sources at other sites are claiming that Flagship will have an announcement "soon".

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