Namco Bandai has announced that it will close down its servers for the troubled MMO, Hellgate: London. The online RPG from doomed studio Flagship will close its doors on January 31, 2009.

The official press release reads:

"Namco Bandai Games America Inc. today announced that they will continue to support customers of PC game Hellgate: London with online server support and play through January 31, 2009 despite the closure of Flagship Studios. In a further gesture of support, Namco Bandai Games will provide this server support free of charge to all fans and players of the game up until the shut down date."

Developer Flagship ran out of money back in July of this year, and the status of Hellgate: London had been unclear since then.

Asian publisher T3 now has the rights to the game, and has set up a new studio to potentially continue work on it, but for now Hellgate: London is set to face a long hiatus.