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An archived Hellgate: London feature. See the Hellgate Archives for more.

Interview: Bill Roper on HGL's progress, Chinese localization, and more.
Date: April 9, 2006
Source: 17173.com

Bill Roper in China

Bill Roper：The development of the game is coming along very well. We are dedicated to releasing the game when it is ready as this was such a big part of our success at Blizzard. Since this is our first game with our new company, we know we can’t take forever. We intend to be starting beta testing sometime this year, so we are certainly on track with our expectations of the development of the game.

We got a lot of great feedback and excitement over the game, especially since they had a chance to play. When we take the game to show it to people in different parts of the world, we like to allow them to see where we are in development and be able to play if possible. TGS was a great time for us since not only did we get to show Taiwan gamers Hellgate: London, but also got to spend time talking with them. We heard so much excitement from them and also got some good feedback to take back and share with the team. We’re looking forward to doing the same here in China.

Hellgate: London is an action/RPG played from both the first and third person perspective. Made by the creators of the Diablo series, Hellgate: London combines the best multiplayer online features of an MMORPG with the immersive action of first-person games like Counterstrike.

Hellgate: London is set in the near future in London, England, 18 years after a demon invasion has largely destroyed the world. Humanity is reduced to just a few select groups of survivors, including the Templar class we will demonstrate today. Players will create characters and join with their friends to defeat the demons and establish a foothold that will be the basis of humanity’s continued existence.

The game will have both stand alone and robust MMO-style versions so that we can give players whatever kind of gaming experience they desire. From fast-paced fighting to massive numbers of items to a completely randomized world to a huge community of gamers with guilds and the ability to play with people from all over the world, Hellgate: London will appeal to players who love anything from Diablo to Conterstrike.

We work with HanbitSoft very closely and we believe they will co-op with partners all around the world to make sure that we are doing all we can to make the game interesting and exciting for gamers in their markets. We also do things like come to China to meet with both the journalists and gamers to get their reactions to the game and hear what they want to see in the game. We had some great success with the Diablo games here, and are excited about building off the popular elements of that series with Hellgate: London.

We will make sure to have elements in the game for Chinese players, and in fact, this is a part of our development and localization process. We will also have offline events, and in fact we will be meeting Chinese players in both Shanghai and Beijing this week and next week during our press tour. This is very exciting for us!

We are working very hard to have a world-wide release so that every country will get the chance to play Hellgate: London at the same time. We have not set a date for the release of the game, but it is our intention to have the launch of the game be a huge event that we can all share in together.