It’s one bad thing after another for the former Diablo development team Flagship Studio.  After filing bankruptcy earlier this year, key members of the dev team were acquired by Turbine (of Lord of the Rings Online) after they officially closed down in July and now, it’s been confirmed that their brainchild, Hellgate:London, is hitting the deadpool at January 31, 2009.

Namco Bandai, who co-published the game through an agreement with EA Partners, had sustained responsibility for Hellgate‘s operation since Flagship Studios confirms the closing date to consumer site GameSpot.

Veterans of Flagship Studios, including chief visionary officer Dave Brevik, recently revealed they’ll go on to play key roles in Turbine’s West Coast expansion.

Right off the launch, Hellgate was plagued with gameplay issues ranging to visual bugs to server hiccups (they were down at launch.. AT LAUNCH).  Even if the game was touted as Diablo 2’s successor, it didn’t generate enough in terms of a fanbase to sustain itself.

The good news is that Hellgate: London will continue to be available to play for free until its servers go offline on January 31.