Although the original studio is long gone, its founder has since formed another team, and since he was also the creator of the franchise, he will be able to continue the original concept in a worthy manner.

Bill Roper founded Flagship Studios in 2003, created Hellgate: London in the fall of 2007 and closed the studio in August 2008 due to financial problems. HanbitSoft was in charge of distribution, and it was with them that Roper agreed to create a new AAA game in the Hellgate franchise for consoles and PC with his new studio, Lunacy Games, founded in September 2022. The project is codenamed Hellgate: Redemption and will take place in a yet-to-be-announced location in an alternate history, demon-infested apocalyptic world.

Lunacy Games CEO and co-founder Bill Roper said in a press release, “I have dreamed of returning to the franchise we created in 2007 for many, many years. I’ve always felt that I had unfinished business with the Hellgate IP, which is why our codename for the project is Hellgate: Redemption. Using Unreal Engine 5, cloud-based game servers, as many off-the-shelf solutions as possible, and great co-development partnerships, we’re putting every development dollar into gameplay and innovation. We’re keeping the core gameplay and lore of Hellgate: London in our current design, but our intention is to create an exciting new experience that takes advantage of the many advancements the industry has seen in the past 17 years since the original game was released.

Lunacy Games described Hellgate: London as being ahead of its time in more ways than one. It was a pioneer of the first-person shooter genre (so it didn’t start with 2009’s Borderlands!), it had randomly generated maps that required their proprietary 3D engine with real-time lighting support, and it had a business model that we know today as Battle Pass. They also had to create a second company to support the online portion of Hellgate: London.

Good luck to the Roper’s; using Unreal Engine 5 should come in handy. Release date and target console platforms for Hellgate: Redemption are unknown.

Source: Gematsu, Einpresswire