According to Korean publisher and developer HanbitSoft, Hellgate: London will continue in unspecified territories as a free-to-play game, despite the announcement last month that servers would be taken offline at the end of the month.
The announcement comes in spite of a decision by Namco-Bandai, which co-published the game through an agreement with Electronic Arts' EA Partners and still claims to own Western publishing rights, to terminate the game's Western servers.
HanbitSoft also states in an official press release that future updates for Hellgate: London are in the works and that they will be focusing on "strengthening community features" while maintaining the core gameplay as is.
The next "large-scale" patch, according to HanbitSoft, will be released "soon," and will "combine the two game play modes, unifying the two seperate communities into one." The company also plans class balance improvements and further distinction between the game's five acts.
According to HanbitSoft's official weblog statement, Hellgate: London will be aimed at the English-speaking market. It is unclear whether the company will be formally allowed to operate the game in the U.S. or Europe.