CAMON HERO on CBT

Camon Hero Starts 1st CBT Today
From July 30th to August 5th!!
HanbitSoft announced that Camon Hero, Card summoning MMORPG developed by T3Entertainment, is starting its first closed beta test through HanbitOn today until 5th of August.

Camon Hero is a MMORPG which is mainly about heroes(characters) fighting against monsters with cards. Camon Hero is revealing over 10thousand items, 700 kinds of different monsters, and 100 different maps with fields and dungeons. The amount of contents is the largest in online game history to be open in the first closed beta test. Players will be able to explore diverse modes and systems without any level limits.

HanbitSoft Signs World Wide Publishing Rights Contract of ‘WarCry’, New Fantasy FPS Blockbuster Developed by T3 Entertainment


Seoul Korea, July 24 2008 – HanbitSoft announced today that the company has acquired worldwide publishing rights of WarCry, the new fantasy FPS blockbuster developed by T3 Entertainment.

WarCry is an online Third person Shooting Game(TSG), based on a fantasy world. Players can choose a class out of twelve heroes, and experience fierce battle with sixteen other players in various maps. Players can not only enjoy the battles between the other fighters, but also explore the thrill of Real Time Strategy(RTS) and shooting game plays. According to HanbitSoft, WarCry is expected to be open to public during this third quarter through HanbitOn, the company’s game community portal site.

“WarCry represents our motto, which is to develop fun and new game each and every time” said Ki Young Kim, CEO of HanbitSoft, and added “We believe WarCry has great potential in both domestic and international market”

HanbitSoft announced that additional games that are being developed by T3 will also be published by HanbitSoft in the future.

HanbitSoft secures global license of ‘Audition2’ and ‘Camon Hero’

HanbitSoft announced it made contract with T3 entertainment for securing global license of ‘Audition2’ and ‘Camon Hero’ on July 17th. With this contract, HanbitSoft holds global license excluding some areas already contracted with Yedang Online. It also secured world-wide license of ‘Camon Hero’, except for two areas of China and Taiwan, that already been exported to by T3.

Kim Ki-Young, CEO of HanbitSoft said, “These two games show proven game quality through previous export contract and now we can expect additional revenue by exposing games to 8 million HanbitOn(http://audition.hanbiton.com) users and starting new service in other overseas market.” He also added, “This contract is the first step of the sequential synergy coming upon the unification of HanbitSoft and T3 Entertainment.”

‘Audition2‘ is receiving high attention of market for it advanced the compatibility between online game and web community to the upper level more like ‘Social Network Service’. The prior title, Audition1 recorded over 350 billion won accumulated revenue and Audition2 is expected to show greater success under this assumption. HanbitOn will start Audition2 channeling service within the 3rd quarter of this year.

‘Camon Hero’ is a unique game title combining role playing type and real time simulation type. It shows differentiated card system and is going to provide domestic service within the 3rd quarter. It is also being prepared for local service in China and Taiwan.

With this contract, HanbiSoft took a step forward for securing new growth engine. It’s said their synergy effect will be proliferated when HanbitSoft launches new pipe-line of T3 Entertainment and it puts spurs to global service.

HGLD for TEENS

Comming SOON: Hellgate: London for TEENS

HanbitSoft announced on June 20, 2008 that teen version of Hellgate: London will be launched in Korea this summer.

Hellgate: London's teen version is for gamers at least 15years old, and the game has been retouched for them. Too much blood effects and explosion scenes were revised or deleted from the game. Some violent vocabulary used in the game was also purified.

Hellgate: London's teen version will be launched in Korea no matter the Flagship Studio's shut down. HanbitSoft stated that they already have received a build, and update schedule will be stayed as planned.

AIKA ONLINE - SURPRISE TEST on July4

Aika Online had a surprise test for two days. Only the ones who had participated on the last two closed beta tests and those who were invited by the members were able to join the test. The test was operated only for two days just to concentrate on its battle system, which is the core system in the game. Project manager at HanbitSoft in charge of Aika stated that "this test is only for testing battel system in order to get ready for the third closed beta test which is planned in very near future."

The test went very well, and Aika will be introduced in upgraded form very soon.

NEOSTEAM in TAIWAN

NEO STEAM HOT, WOW in FEAR in Taiwan
NEO STEAM Competes Against WOW on 1st Place of Taiwanese Top Game Portal Site

Seoul, Korea – June 26, 2008 – HanbitSoft today announced that steam punk RPG NEO STEAM is in commercial service with popular responses in Taiwan.NEO STEAM has started its commercial service on 19th of June, and achieved more than 25thousand CCPU in a week which is the number twice as big as the one from the closed beta test.

NEO STEAM at first began the service with 13 worlds, but had to add two more during its first week to manage rapidly increasing gamers.In one of Taiwans famous game portal site(www.gamer.com.tw), NEO STEAM now competes against WORLD of WARCRAFT on first place of the rank, and another game magazine reported that guidebook for NEO STEAM is very popular among the gamers.

"Around 7thousand copies of starters package are being sold every day at SEVEN-ELEVEN, and according to gamers, they have to visit 2~3 stores in a day just to get one package" said Howard Chang, Manager of NEO STEAM service at X-Legend Entertainment, and added "We are happy about the results so far. We will do our best to make this popularity long run."

HanbitSoft announced that the reasons for NEO STEAMs such success in Taiwan, are the international service know-how the company has learned through previous services in Japan and China, and preparation of sufficient contents for gamers to enjoy. HanbitSoft added that with X-Legend, both companies will put best effort on providing sustainable updates to bring satisfying service to Taiwanese gamers.

Some of you may be surprised, some of you may worry, and some of you may be up beat to hear the shocking news coming from us every week.This week has been all about Flagship Studios Shut Down, and IP law suits over HGLD and Mythos. This is the Translation of our press release put out on July 16th, 2008 in Korea.

Bill Roper and Directors of Flagship Studios Bear Responsibility

Last weekend, Flagship Studios announced that former employees were fired and HanbitSoft mentioned that all measures were proceeding as planned to the benefit of players (in Korea) to ensure that continued service of Hellgate: London would be seamless despite the current problems at its development studio. In addition, HanbitSoft holds the executives of Flagship Studios fully responsible for the incident towards the rights and interests of the users and stakeholders, including shareholders and other parties involved. HanbitSoft is considering taking strong legal action against Flagship Studios in order to take them to task for their responsibilities.

HanbitSoft does not expect to have any difficulty in securing the exclusive intellectual property rights related to Mythos. HanbitSoft is prepared to deal with Comerica bank in a local visit to them next week in order to secure and acquire the intellectual property rights of Hellgate: London. HanbitSoft believes that the game has nothing to do with the aforementioned bank as HanbitSoft already holds the rights to the game in Asia. HanbitSoft believes it has a strong possibility of acquiring the intellectual property of Hellgate: London in the United States and the rest of the world.

HanbitSoft stated that they will be devising a plan to continue work on the games with local (Korean) game developers in order to see the game through.

HanbitSoft’s CEO Kim Ki-Young stated, “Hellgate: London has a strong possibility of being ‘reborn’ into an excellent game with an outstanding product life,” he continued to say that “With more than 500 people at its disposal, both in-house and outsourced contracts who are veteran developers of every genre ranging from casual games to hardcore MMORPGs, we are ready to recreate Hellgate: London into an excellent game.”

He continued, “We don’t have to recruit existing developers, however if we could do so, we could shorten the time for analysis and developing for users. Although we are trying our best, since Flagship Studios doesn’t want to cooperate, we have no choice.”

According to HanbitSoft, they offered several methods and the means to keep Flagship alive in consideration of the users, but Flagship majorly lacked in effort. Hanbitsoft already has offered large amounts of investments but Flagship replied with ridiculous counter-offers and the negotiations went south. Even so, HanbitSoft continued to make investment offers which were all rejected, leading to the lay-offs of all of the Flagship employees.

HanbitSoft also stated, “Flagship not only lacked effort, but were only looking for personal gain. Firing all of the Flagship employees in order to protect the personal interests of its founding members only shows how selfish and irresponsible they are.”

Flagship Studios is an incorporated company. Hence if any problems occur within this company, it doesn’t affect the finances of any of Flagship Studios’ founders.

HanbitSoft said they are going to take legal proceedings as Flagship Studios is legally responsible for a serious breach of duty in not protecting their stockholder’s rights. The legal proceedings will be done against Flagship’s founders and management people for their intellectual property. HanbitSoft currently owns a 9.5% stake in Flagship Studios.

You can also read this piece at http://hellgateguru.com/2008/07/hanbitsoft-flagship-is-selfish-and-irresponsible/

T3 Entertainment Becomes the Largest Stockholder of HanbitSoft

As you may have heard from the various news, T3 Entertainment, the developing company very well known for Audition, online casual dance game, has acquired controlling stake in HanbitSoft on May 19, 2008 and have become the largest stockholder of the company.

The following is part the press release put out on the announcement day in Korea.


HanbitSoft announced today(May 19, 2008) that T3 Entertainment(hereinafter T3) has become the largest stockholder of the company.

HanbitSoft assigned 25% of Alex Kim’s share, who had been CEO and the largest stockholder of HanbitSoft, to T3.

HanbitSoft stated that this strategic coalition between the two companies will bring great synergy to the whole industry. Games that are developed by T3 will be serviced through HanbitOn, game portal site of 8million accounts, which will eventually brought up to be one of largest game portal sites in Korea.

T3 seeks to brighten up the domestic market by strengthening HanbitOn, and global market through strong international network HanbitSoft have built so far.

“Despite the ownership of the company, I will continue to devote my all passion and my know hows for HanbitSoft’s better future” said Alex Kim, CEO of HanbitSoft, and added “we decided to go for ‘changing the largest stockholder’ other than any other possible ways to go, because we agreed it is the best way to be. We believe our deal will bring positive energy to struggling industry.”