Flagship Studios
Private | |
Industry | Video games |
---|---|
Founded | 2003 |
Defunct | August 2008 |
Fate | Dissolved |
Headquarters | San Francisco, California, United States |
Key people | |
Products |
Flagship Studios was an American video game developer founded by Bill Roper along with Max Schaefer , Erich Schaefer , and David Brevik, former high level Blizzard North executives.[1] The core personnel of Flagship Studios had been collaborating as a team since 1993 when they founded Condor Studios (later bought out and renamed Blizzard North) and in addition to creating the Diablo franchise many were key high level executives in the development of Warcraft, StarCraft and World of Warcraft games. Flagship Studios was formed following the resignation en masse of Blizzard North management following a dispute with Blizzard Entertainment parent company Vivendi regarding the potential fate of the company, development team, and titles, which were in doubt at that time.[2] Flagship Studio's primary target platform for their games was the PC.
Flagship Studios had a partnership with Namco Hometek and HanbitSoft to cover an international market for game marketing and distribution. The company dissolved[3] in August 2008 because of financial troubles. Max Schaefer and Erich Schaefer moved on to help form Runic Games.
Titles
Hellgate: London
In March 2005, following months of teasing
Mythos
Mythos was a game under development by a division of Flagship Studios commonly called "Flagship Seattle". An online RPG, similar in style to Diablo, the game was used to test the networking technology behind the multiplayer component of Hellgate: London. It was expected to be free to play and download, although the financing model was never set in stone.[7] Following the layoffs at Flagship Studios due to the financial issues, the intellectual property rights over Mythos have now been claimed by the Korean company Hanbitsoft, which was offered as collateral for loans earlier in the year. Mythos lead designer Travis Baldree and Flagship Studios co-founder Max Schaefer have subsequently formed the new game company Runic Games along with the remaining staff of 14 behind the game from Flagship Seattle.[8] Runic Games developed the Diablo-like action RPG Torchlight.[9] They have since left Runic to found Double Damage Games.
Closed
The co-founder Max Schaefer announced on August 15, 2008, that the studio has "for all intents and purposes" shut down.[10]
References
- ^ "Flagship Studios Opens with a Splash". Flagship Studios. 2003-11-22. Retrieved 2008-07-16.
- ^ Robert Howarth (2003-10-27). "Flagship Studios Interview". IGN. Archived from the original on August 30, 2007. Retrieved 2008-07-16.
- ^ Green, Jeff. "Bill Roper speaks out at last". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on 2011-05-22.
- ^ Dave Spohn (2007-11-13). "Hellgate: London Interview". About.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-13. Retrieved 2008-07-17.
- ^ Stuart Bishop (2008-02-25). "We ballsed things up with Hellgate, Roper admits". CVG. Retrieved 2008-07-17.
- ^ "Flagship Founder Bill Roper Interview". 1up.com. Archived from the original on 2011-05-22. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ Tim Surette (2007-03-22). "Mythos detailed, will be free". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-07-17.
- ^ Suzie Ford (2008-08-11). "Runic Games Interview". WarCry. Archived from the original on 2013-03-15. Retrieved 2008-08-11.
- ^ "Press - Torchlight - Runic Games". Torchlightgame.com. Archived from the original on 2012-04-20. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
- ^ "Max Schaefer: Flagship Studios has closed".