Flagship castaways form Runic

During this year's E3 Media & Business Summit word was widespread that Flagship Studios had shut down. After days of silence, the Hellgate: London studio confirmed that it had indeed given "most employees" the pink slip, but would remain extant as a company.

Now comes word that some of Flagship's castaways have landed a new gig. Over the weekend, several members of the studio's Seattle studio announced they had formed an independent studio, Runic Games. Heading up the studio will be Travis Baldree, director of the forthcoming free online RPG Mythos, and Max Schaefer, a founding member of Flagship and Diablo creator Blizzard North.

In a brief statement posted on the studio's bare-bones Web site, Runic Games' founders announced they "intend to continue to use their expertise in the Action-RPG MMO genre to create the best games in this market." They also promised "announcements about forthcoming projects will be made in the coming days."