Massively reported today at 10:00 AM Pacific that Hellgate: London will not go down at the end of January! Flagship Studios, the developer, was only going to continue to run servers until January 31, 2009; however, HanbitSoft, the current IP owner, has decided to keep the game online using the free-to-play model.
This is great news! I do feel bad for all the people who have been giving away items and palladium. Luckily I was not one of those people! I suppose the free-to-play model implies that HanbitSoft will be offering microtransactions to make money off the game. That’s fine with me! The article also mentions the possibility of an expansion. According to Wikipedia, Flagship Studios was working on an expansion called The Second Invasion that would take place in Korea. Of course, HanbitSoft now owns the rights to that too, but there hasn’t been any confirmation of them releasing it. In the novels, which take place before HG:L the game, there were rumors of Hellgates opening all over the world. Assuming this expansion takes place after Hellgate: London and that it is indeed about the second invasion, those rumors the characters heard must have been false.