Staff leaving Flagship "in droves," says programmer

Talking on his blog, Flagship audio and gameplay programmer Guy Somberg has admitted that the Hellgate studio has something of a leakage issue.

"So why is work depressing? The reason is that people are leaving. In droves, they’re leaving," he said. "We’ve had programmers, accountants, HR people, and artists leave. The founders are all still around, but they’ve been floating away from Hellgate to work on various other projects. The only one still actively on Hellgate is Tyler, but Tyler’s not programming anymore; he spends all of his time on management activities."

Hellgate, says Somberg, is not quite the game is was supposed to be.

"Hellgate is not a big success," he added. "That sucks, and it’s depressing. I’m keeping a positive attitude about it because of Korea and China. The Koreans really love the game, and the Chinese have yet to see it. I don’t know how any of these deals are structured, but I’m hinging my hopes for Hellgate’s future on the Asian market."

Whoops. More through the link. It doesn't make for pretty reading, frankly.