Following last week’s news that Flagship Studios had “laid off most employees”, the beta test of its free-to-play MMORPG, Mythos, has now gone offline.

Mythos' servers were shut down late on Friday, according to a statement posted on the game’s official forums, although the official line coming from Flagship’s Seattle studio is that the world of Mythos is only taking a break.

“We regretfully announce that on Friday, July 18, 2008 at 11:59 CST the world of Uld known as Mythos will be going on hiatus,” reads the statement.

“On behalf of all of the devs and community team we want to thank you to everyone for their support and assistance with Mythos Alpha and Beta testing and we will see you soon.”

Flagship Studios CEO Bill Roper said last week that the company is still operational, although its future plans are unclear at present.

The developer’s San Francisco studio is no longer taking any new subscribers for Hellgate: London and has said that all current subscriptions will not be billed.