Flagship Studios
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Flagship Studios was a computer game company founded by Bill Roper along with , , and
David Brevik David Brevik (born February 14, 1968) is an American video game designer, producer and programmer who served as the co-founder and president of Blizzard North. He is best known for the critically acclaimed ''Diablo'' franchise. Currently he s ...
, former high level
Blizzard North Blizzard North (formerly known as Condor) was an American video game development studio based in San Mateo, California. The studio was the Bay Area division of Blizzard Entertainment, known for its ''Diablo'' series. The company was originally ba ...
executives. 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 ''Warcraft'' is a franchise of video games, novels, and other media created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series is made up of five core games: '' Warcraft: Orcs & Humans'', '' Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness'', '' Warcraft III: Reign of Chao ...
'', '' StarCraft'' and ''
World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the ''Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the world of Azeroth ...
'' games. Flagship Studios was formed following the resignation en masse of Blizzard North management following a dispute with
Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three gradu ...
parent company
Vivendi Vivendi SE is a French mass media holding company headquartered in Paris. Widely known as the owner of Gameloft, Groupe Canal+, Havas, Editis, Prisma Media, Vivendi Village and Dailymotion, the company has activities in television, film, video ...
regarding the potential fate of the company, development team, and titles, which were in doubt at that time. Flagship Studio's primary target platform for their games was the PC. Flagship Studios had a partnership with Namco Hometek and
HanbitSoft HanbitSoft ( ko, 한빛소프트) is a Korean video game publisher, computer game publishing and video game developer, development company. It is best known internationally as the Korean distributor for the successful computer game ''StarCraft''. ...
to cover an international market for game marketing and distribution. The company dissolved in August 2008 because of financial troubles. Max Schaefer and Erich Schaefer moved on to help form
Runic Games Runic Games was a Seattle-based American computer game company formed by Travis Baldree (creator of '' Fate''), Max Schaefer and Erich Schaefer (co-founders of Blizzard North, creators of '' Diablo''), Peter Hu, and the Flagship Studios Seattle ...
.


Titles


''Hellgate: London''

In March 2005, following months of teasing concept art for an unknown game, Flagship Studios' first title named '' Hellgate: London'' was announced via an exclusive article in the
computer magazine Computer magazines are about computers and related subjects, such as networking and the Internet. Most computer magazines offer (or offered) advice, some offer programming tutorials, reviews of the latest technologies, and advertisements. His ...
PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...
. It was formally released October 31, 2007 as an action role-playing game (RPG) in the same vein as the '' Diablo'' games, but with the twist of being played in 3D, primarily from a first-person perspective. The game takes place in a
post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; ast ...
demon-infested
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, following a great battle between demons and humans. Unlike regular
first-person shooters First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pla ...
, the game features RPG content in the form of e.g. random quests, and where a character's combat efficiency is more determined by statistics than player reflexes. In addition, the game features random levels, uncommon in games of similar perspective and scale. Expectations from the game were high, as earlier games the developers have been involved in, especially titles from Blizzard Entertainment, have become best sellers with few exceptions. However, it received mixed reviews, and complaints by many gamers that the game was released in an unfinished state, which was later admitted by CEO Bill Roper. The company no longer owns the intellectual property rights to the game.


''Mythos''

''
Mythos Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...
'' 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. Following the layoffs at Flagship Studios due to the financial issues, the
intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
rights over Mythos have now been claimed by the Korean company Hanbitsoft, which was offered as
collateral Collateral may refer to: Business and finance * Collateral (finance), a borrower's pledge of specific property to a lender, to secure repayment of a loan * Marketing collateral, in marketing and sales Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Collate ...
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 Runic Games was a Seattle-based American computer game company formed by Travis Baldree (creator of '' Fate''), Max Schaefer and Erich Schaefer (co-founders of Blizzard North, creators of '' Diablo''), Peter Hu, and the Flagship Studios Seattle ...
along with the remaining staff of 14 behind the game from Flagship Seattle. Runic Games developed the '' Diablo''-like action RPG ''
Torchlight ''Torchlight'' is an action role-playing hack and slash dungeon crawler video game developed by Runic Games and published by Perfect World, released for Windows in October 2009. The fantasy-themed game is set in the fictional town of Torchligh ...
''. 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.


References

{{Authority control Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game development companies Video game companies based in California Video game companies established in 2003 Video game companies disestablished in 2008 Companies based in San Francisco Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area