James Lee
11:02 (BST)
15/08/2008
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Max Schaefer: Flagship Studios has closed
Max Schaefer, co-founder and COO of Flagship Studios, has revealed that the beleaguered developer has "for all intents purposes" shut down.
Speaking to Gamecyte, Schaefer explained that the Flagship Studios was only open to take care of "final affairs" and that in reality it was closed.
"It's barely open. It's just open enough to take care of the final affairs, but for all intents and purposes it's closed down," he explained.
Schaefer also spoke about attempts to save the company, bemoaning that a number of deals could have kept Flagship Studios open - but fell through.
"We were in very advanced negotiations with a couple of people for deals that would have kept Flagship open and would have kept everything running. And in fact, for a good while it was looking like a near-certainty that one of those would have come to fruition," he said.
"In the end, it was just too entangled to get a good deal in place, and so we had to close down. It was really kind of a wrenching, horrible period actually, and we learned a lot from it. We'd do things differently next time for sure."
"We all were up all night, every night, not getting any sleep, working every day trying to get it to work out for everyone, and in the end it just didn't," Schaefer added.
Last Month, Flagships Studios' CEO Bill Roper confirmed that a number of staff were laid off but insisted the company was still functioning and open. This was followed by news that Flagship Studios' former Seattle team had reformed as Runic Games and that Mythos and Hellgate: London had been picked up by T3 entertainment.
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