Flagship Studios Lawsuit Looming

Posted by Stropp on July 18, 2008

Hellgate Guru has once again posted a translation of Korean company Hanbitsoft’s latest tirade against Flagship Studios. You can read the full post here.

This time they have accused the founders and management of Flagship of being selfish and irresponsible for:

Firing all of the Flagship employees in order to protect the personal interests of its founding members only shows how selfish and irresponsible they are…

There’s certainly a lot of hubris by Hanbitsoft here.

I’ve been around long enough to know that businesses will fire their employees when they cut costs. That’s just the way things are; it’s not personal — even if it feels that way. I know it’s happened to me enough times. It does sound selfish, yes. But if Flagship are trying to save their business then it’s anything but irresponsible.

I also guessed right the other day, though it wasn’t much of a stretch. Hanbitsoft is planning a lawsuit against Bill Roper and the other founding directors. Presumably that is intended to take control of the Hellgate and Mythos IPs, but there looks to be a desire to punish the founders as well. Especially since it sounds like the lawsuit is being directed at the directors as well as the company.

Since I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t even play one on TV, take this with a grain of salt. It’s possible that this is a tactic that Hanbitsoft is using to ‘encourage’ the directors of Flagship to settle. A lawsuit can be a risky thing, it’s not at all certain that Hanbitsoft can win the IP, let alone win judgements against the directors, and it will cost a bundle for them to try. It’s probably a lot easier in fact to win against Flagship the company. To get a judgement against the directors, since the Flagship corporate structure would limit liability, Hanbitsoft will need to prove the directors met the legal standards of corporate negligence. I believe that’s a lot harder.

One thing is certain. If Flagship Studios management are aiming at getting the company back on track, this lawsuit will make that a lot harder.

I wonder if that is Hanbitsofts intention?

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