Gamasutra, citing sources inside the company, reports that Flagship Studios has laid off a significant portion of its staff. While the Hellgate: London developer has not offered any details, it has stated that there is some truth to the report.

Quite interestingly, more turbulence in the studio is being reported by Korean news site TheGames.co.kr translated by fansite Hellgate Guru who reports that Korean publisher HanbitSoft is taking full control of the Hellgate property, which it co-owns.

As per the report, HanbitSoft intends to take full control of the property, adding that its own in-house development team will be able to “properly manage and develop Hellgate: London into a good game with proper content.”

“Flagship Studios does not currently own the intellectual properties to either game, which are held in separate companies subject to the security interests of lenders,” said HanbitSoft’s lawyers. “HanbitSoft hopes to work with Comerica and some of the team at Flagship to see if there is a way to continue to generate content to keep Hellgate online in Asia and to finish the development of Mythos.”

Hellgate: London was received poorly by both critics and gamers at launch. The game has been said to be very monotonous, buggy and overall not fun enough.