Though Hellgate: London was originally released in 2007 and officially shut down less than 16 months later, Korean developer HanbitSoft has acquired distribution rights for the game in the United States, Europe and Japan from Namco Bandai and intends to re-release the game in these territories at some point in the future.
After original developer Flagship Studios closed down less than a year after releasing Hellgate: London (online service for Hellgate: London remained active until February 2009), HanbitSoft re-developed the game and released it as a free-to-play MMO on the Korean market. Having acquired distribution rights from Namco Bandai, Hanbit intends to re-release the game in Europe, the United States and Japan following planned releases China, Taiwan and other South-Asian countries later this year.
When it was originally released in 2007, the game was lauded for implementing a unique combat system and extensive character customization options, though it was criticized for its monotony and buggy gameplay. This large amount of bugs and other issues eventually led to the game becoming a commercial failure, which resulted in the closure of Flagship Studios, which consisted primarily of former Blizzard North employees that had worked on Starcraft, Diablo, Warcraft and World of Warcraft. HanbitSoft has worked on fixing these issues and has added new features to the game, referring to the overall updated version as Hellgate: Resurrection. An exact release date is not available at this time.