Hellgate London the part MMO part RPG game created by Flagship Studios' is blowing up in Korea in a very unexpected turn of events. The game's beta is the number 1 item in internet cafes there and amazingly has over 1 million signed up accounts. These accounts were registered in the first two weeks prompting Flagship to declare the game the most successful launch in Korea in the last 3 years.

It's amazing to see because Korea seems to produce eighteen MMORPGs a day and most of them have abysmal receptions here. Games like Sword of the New Word show the disparity between Korean and American tastes. Maybe it does make sense though, because Hellgate did badly here too! However we differ Hellgate fits in there and for a while it looked like it might vanish all together. We can hope that with the added income and attention Hellgate will see a lot of improvement soon. A resurgence here is not unlikely if they fix issues and lure people back with the promise of lots of dollars to re-invest in development.

Hellgate always seemed to have a lot of potential. The U.S. launch was plagued by bugs like crashes that scared everyone away, but they weren't really testament to the games true quality (you might remember I gave it a good review). Obviously these were fixed for the Korean launch and things went much differently. Who doesn't want a Diablo style MMO?