Hellgate: London Control Issues Detailed

[GameBanshee News]

The guys at GameCyte have posted an interesting write-up that summarizes which companies own certain aspects of Hellgate: London, ranging from the logo and trademark to territory-specific rights.

However, not everyone is convinced that HanbitSoft’s potential US and European release plans would be impeded. Just this afternoon, we spoke to Game Attorney Tom Buscaglia… and after we conducted a pleasent chat about the state of the U.S. bureaucracy, he told us that there still might be a way HanbitSoft could make their case.

“The thing with MMOs is that it’s not a static product you deliver,” said the attorney. “Possibly the goal here is that HanbitSoft has some sort of financial incentive to keep the servers going and create new content.”

...

The other way HanbitSoft might be able to enter western markets, according to Bucaglia, would be if the servers generated funds. “If there was revenue from running the servers, part of that revenue might have belonged to Hanbitsoft… they might even be able to get a court to come in and hand the servers to them.”

Until we hear differently, though, we’re going to assume that HanbitSoft’s San Francisco studio RedBana U.S. is developing new content for the Asian market alone.

By the time they work all of this out, it's not going to matter anyway.

[DesR85]

I sometimes wonder how on earth the devs negotiate this sort of agreement. EA, Namco-Bandai and Hanbitsoft to manage the game? Sheesh...