If you're a game developer who's going to implode in a sudden and dramatic flameout, probably the best time to do it is during E3, when everyone else is busy talking about all the big news. But Flagship Studios, the creators of Hellgate: London, couldn't even get that right. They imploded during what was arguably the least spectacular E3 in the show's history.

Normally when a developer closes down, it's no big deal to the people playing the game. They might post some sympathetic comment on a forum or kvetch about some unpatched bug, but mostly they'll just go right on playing the game. Not so with Hellgate: London, which was launched as a sort of half-breed MMO/Diablo clone with a subscription model that divided the haves from the have/nots. Since Flagship shuttered its doors, the server's have been coasting along just fine, but subscription fees have been temporarily suspended and new accounts have been disabled. The latest patch seemed like it would never leave the test server. New content was a distant dream or a bad joke, depending on what you thought of the game.

But now Hellgate's future seems a bit more stable. The Korean company that laid claim the rights to the game are starting a studio in San Francisco, where Flagship Studios was located, specifically to continue development on Hellgate. Gamasutra notes they're posting job ads, which indicates they're not simply re-hiring Flagship employees.

At any rate, it seems like Hellgate: London has no intention of just dying. At least not before a longer period of sputtering, coughing, and staggering.