Hellgate Global Interview
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GB: Will T3Fun be handling any of the development on the North American version of Hellgate: London, or will you primarily be bringing over any new Korean patches and translating all of the text to English? Are there any plans for another expansion or major content additions? David: Development is taken care of by Hanbitsoft. I am the person in charge of global service. We are planning to add all the final version content of Hellgate to the global servers.
GB: Do you currently have a projected timeframe for when the open beta will end and the full live game will launch? Beyond the usual press release or social feed updates, do you have any plans to promote the game at its live launch?
David: This is actually the live launch now. We did not differentiate in this case between open beta and commercial launch. The game is out now and available for everyone so you will not see any specific announcements or promotion related to a live launch, this is it!
GB: Once the game goes live, how often do you expect to be able to deliver new patches and content? How much time will there be between a Korean patch release versus a North American patch release?
David: We would like to provide it to our users as soon as possible. However, we need at least a month for translation and testing.
GB: Now that Tcoin microtransactions are supported in-game via the cash store, have you seen a steady stream of revenue coming in from players? Based on your early sales numbers, do you feel that the game will be able to sustain itself for years to come using this business model?
David: We don't want to make any predictions at this point but the game has been very well received and there is certainly a core set of maniac fans supporting the game every day. Hellgate has a great concept and dedicated, therefore we will never give up. While there are no official details yet you can expect news soon about development updates.
GB: There are a lot of original players that still have a bitter taste in their mouth after Flagship's servers were shut down and their hard-earned characters and loot simply blinked out of existence overnight. What do you have to say to current and future Hellgate players to assure them that this sort of situation won't happen again, particularly since some of them have already spent hundreds of dollars on cash store items?
David: We fully understand that the users are bitter about everything that happened. Moreover, we are very thankful that despite what happened, the users are still playing Hellgate.
To answer the question, (Flagship) is the company that gave birth to Hellgate and a company that made a great CD game. However, it was too bad that they weren't able to overcome the technical differences of online and console. With that, the service had to end. Hellgate Global is what Hanbitsoft turned into an online game.
This might sound perfunctory but Hanbitsoft and Flagship are two different companies. Currently, Hanbitsoft is in charge of all developments as Flagship closed down.
Hanbitsoft did the renewal operations on the Tokyo version and London. Hanbitsoft will continuously endeavor to improve and invest in Hellgate.
GB: Thanks for your time, David.
