As problems mount at Flagship Studios, the company has closed the private beta for its free MMO Mythos.
With mass layoffs and a legal battle over custody of the Hellgate games, Flagship Studios has halted development on Mythos, its Diablo-esque online multiplayer title.
Executive Producer Max Schaefer stated in a forum post prior to the forums being pulled offline, “PC gaming is changing, and I believe we’ve had a sneak preview with Mythos. With any luck, this will not be a long hiatus, and Mythos will be back.”
Rumors that the studio will soon be shutting down completely have been circulating ever since Hellgate: London‘s Korean distributor claimed that it was taking over the intellectual property. Flagship has since been slowing development in order to concentrate its focus on saving the company.
“I can’t really believe I’m writing a post like this, but here we are faced with the unpleasant task of taking a hiatus from this crazy project,” commented Schaefer. “Unlike most games, Mythos has been running with our testing community for almost its whole life. I really feel like we’ve all done this together. And despite this bump in the road, I think we’ve succeeded wildly. This is undoubtedly the best game community I’ve ever seen. This is the best game development team in the world, in both Seattle and San Francisco. The things we’ve learned here, and with you all, will be with us forever.”
