Hellgate: London return is Asia only

Namco Bandai confirms US and Europe will close in January

6 November 2008 11:47 GMT / By Verity Burns

Just as we feared, the news that Hellgate: London is to return does not include the US and Europe.

Namco Bandai clarified that the expansion pack planned and announced by HanbitSoft would not reach the West, because Namco Bandai still owns to the rights to the online RPG over here and has no plans to pursue the game further.

In a post on the official Hellgate forum, someone from Namco Bandai broke the news to gamers.

"People are speculating and I don't want anyone shocked on January 31, 2009 when the server and forums shut down and there is nothing," said Namco.

"Let me explain things a bit to see if it clears up any issues for you. Hanbit owns the IP and rights to publish anywhere other then the US and EU and I think the other territory is Japan. Namco owns the rights to publish in the US and EU."

The HanbitSoft statement had suggested that "service in Asia including Korea is in good hands", so we had been cautious as to whether we would ever see the expansion from the get go.
.
HanbitSoft is also taking over development of the yet unreleased game from demised developer Flagship, Mythos, but no word on if we'll see that over here as yet.