A sinking "Flagship"? Flagship Studios lays off most of their employees

* Image from Pacmanpolarbear of Photobucket.com

After the epic fail at launching Hellgate London (HGL), Flagship has officially announced in a short press release that they have laid off most of their employees. Along with that announcement, they also stated that they are unwilling to take new subscribers for any of their games and have also told current subscribers that they will not be billed for the service.

What this tells me is that Flagship Studios has lost so much money and have generated such bad publicity that they are indeed about to shut their doors. Rumors have it that Hanbitsoft in Korea will take over HGL and possibly the much anticipated Mythos.

With Blizzard announcing Diablo III, one has to wonder if the once disgrunted Blizzard North employees are heading back to Blizzard. It certainly might help Blizzard with their recent controversy of art direction that has drawn a online petition from fans of the franchise.

Heck, if I was in charge of Blizzard I would definitely find out why the franchise was a success from the actual people who worked on the project.

Good luck to all you former Flagship Studios employees.

Cheers.