NCsoft Shuts Down City of Heroes

JoshV

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Mar 20, 2009
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NCsoft Shuts Down City of Heroes


The venerable superhero-themed MMO will be shutting down for good before the end of the year.

"All good things must come to an end." Today, you might use that proverb to refer to the aged-but-well-liked superhero MMO, City of Heroes, and its developer, Paragon Studios, which will soon be closing its doors for good. All City of Heroes billing, including the Paragon Market in-game store have been shut down, and preparations are being made to turn off the servers before the end of the year. No reason has yet been given for the game's closure.

In a farewell post on the official City of Heroes site [http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/news_archive/thank_you.php], Community Manager Andy Belford elaborated, "In a realignment of company focus and publishing support, NCsoft has made the decision to close Paragon Studios. Effective immediately, all development on City of Heroes will cease and we will begin preparations to sunset the world's first, and best, Super Hero MMORPG before the end of the year."

This news will certainly come as a surprise to many players. Indeed, it may have been a surprise even to employees of the studio itself; a new powerset [http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/news_archive/nature_affinity_is_live.php] was released in the Paragon Market just ten days ago, and now can no longer even be purchased. While the farewell post urges players not to "dwell on the "how" or the "why"," there will no doubt be a lot of people wanting answers.

An examination of NCsoft's IR (Investor Relations) report for August 2012 [http://global.ncsoft.com/global/board/attachmentfile.aspx?BID=ir_pr&BNo=25&No=0] may reveal some clues to those answers, however. Visible on the thirteenth page of the report, it seems that sales related to City of Heroes have remained fairly constant - in fact, they increased very slightly over mid 2011 sales. At a glance, this does not seem particularly damning, but it should be considered that City of Heroes went through a free-to-play conversion over the later half of 2011, launching officially as City of Heroes: Freedom on September 13th, 2011. Undoubtedly, this conversion was intended to increase the game's profitability and longevity, and yet the revenue barely increased. With newer, bigger NCsoft titles either just arriving or on the horizon like Guild Wars 2 and Blade and Soul, it is - unfortunately - not inconceivable that NCsoft would decide to pull the plug.

Whatever the true reasons for the game's closure, it's truly sad to see it come to an end in such a fashion. While it never achieved the runaway success of larger MMOs like World of Warcraft, it was well-received by critics and well-liked by fans, and it will be missed.

Source: City of Heroes [http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/news_archive/thank_you.php]

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Goofguy

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Nov 25, 2010
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I only ever played City of Heroes for 6 months, back in 2007. It was a fun MMO at the time, especially since I was playing alongside two really good friends.

It's a shame to see it go but on the other hand, it's not like I was playing it anymore. I'd say it had quite the loyal fanbase and a good run.

BZ, Paragon Studios.
 

The Human Torch

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Sep 12, 2010
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City of Heroes was my first MMO, and my first real experience with a online social network, I had some damn good times in there. I tried revisiting CoH some time ago, but the game barely runs on Windows Vista (got it running once, logged out, tried logging in again, the game crashed and decided never to work again) and won't even work with Windows 7. This game did not age well at all.
 

Nerdstar

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well that sucks... city of heroes was my first MMO i ever bought subscribed to and played(hell i even built my first computer just to play that game...)i loved to RP on there(aloth i am a bit embarrassed when i think back to it because of how cheesy i sounded at the time lol) and it let me put my hero that i always dreamed of bring on paper so to speak

i'm gonna miss it when it gos
 

oppp7

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God damn, how many of NCSoft's MMOs have been shut down so far? I think it's like 5 now: Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa, Exsteel, Dungeon Runners... and according to Wikipedia there are 2 others. Don't they realize how much of a turnoff that is when dealing with huge investments of time like MMOs?
 

Ranorak

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I've played it for a bit, never really got that into it, but it's never fun to see someone else source of fun or pleasure close down.
 

Mordekaien

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Ech, the beer I've had tastes bitter now, way to end friday. I still played, even now, and it was one of the few very well polished MAC MMOs out there. Truly a shame.
 

Sixcess

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The Human Torch said:
I tried revisiting CoH some time ago, but the game barely runs on Windows Vista (got it running once, logged out, tried logging in again, the game crashed and decided never to work again) and won't even work with Windows 7. This game did not age well at all.
I played it on and off for 2 years on a laptop running Vista, and then later on another running Windows 7, default settings, no tweaks required, and never with any problems, so I think it's a bit more likely the problem was with your pc, or a bad install. /shrug.

OT: My first MMO, and though I've been away for a while I was planning on returning soon. It's not a perfect game (none are) but I have a lot of good memories of it, and I'm shocked and saddened at how sudden this is.

That said... I'm not terribly surprised that their F2P transition didn't work out for them - the 'free' model was easily the worst of the 4 or 5 F2P MMOs I've played for any length of time, more of a glorified trial than anything else with a lot of content locked behind paywalls. I've always felt more inclined to spend money on F2Ps when I don't feel like I'm being forced to spend money, oddly enough.

But still... no server mergers? No maintenance mode? I shouldn't be surprised seeing as it's NCSoft... but wow... what. the. fuck?
 

Shuguard

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Poor Andy, Going from the sinking ship of Warhammer: Age of Reckoning to the now closing City of Heros... better luck next time mate.
 

Rad Party God

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Feb 23, 2010
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This is a sad, sad day indeed. I've tried Champions Online and DC Universe Online and while both are good in their own ways, City of Heroes was simply the best super hero MMO available. And they couldn't picked up a worst time for this, as I was just getting the hang of the game itself.

Being NCsoft and their record of trigger happy shut downs, now I'm fearing for the fate of the first Guild Wars now that the second game is filling their bank accounts.

Oddly enough, the first Everquest seems to still going pretty strong.
 

IanDavis

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Aug 18, 2012
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City of Heroes was great for its time, but it did not age well in a post-WoW world. The UI felt so strange and uncomfortable. However, the character creation was utterly absorbing. It was hard NOT to role-play after spending an hour just picking out your costume.
 

Pinstar

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Jul 22, 2009
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Been playing on and off since issue 2... some of the best MMO RPing I've ever had... My now-wife and I played it as a duo back when we were still just dating. I have a lot of history with this game... it will be missed.

 

rason

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Jul 22, 2009
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Sorry to see it go, if only because I have fond memories of costume contests. Nice article, btw, I like it when the article involves some real investigation.
 

Scarim Coral

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Oct 29, 2010
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Well I suppose it was a good thing I did try it once abliet it was months ago and not when it first came out. The game felt so plain that I uninstall it a day later.

I would of thought they made the ingame stuff sold in the shop free than to shut it down competely.
 

Draken Steel

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May 15, 2009
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Pity :( It was one of the few mmos other then wow that I tried and actually enjoyed and spent some time in. Actually used a few neat different mechanics and such, kept meaning to get back to it but guess I wont be now. The character creator was bloody awesome especially considering the games age.

Idk, just really disappointing.
 

archabaddon

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The game officially ends on Nov. 30th according to sources. For my wife and I, who were with the game from 2004 up until 2011 or so, it will be the end of an era. We met a lot of good people in Paragon City. We still keep up with quite a few of them out of game.

The news today was sudden and staggering, and I'm at a loss for words, except "Thanks for everything, City of Heroes."

~ Obsidius

Edit: Also, some of us current/former/soon-to-be-former CoH players have made a fleet on Star Trek Online for anyone looking for a new 2nd home: http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=373611
 

Ken Sapp

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Apr 1, 2010
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Always meant to try CoH, shame to see it go. It would be nice to see these F2P games (or even the P2P games) open-sourced once they are shut down by the creators, then the remaining community could continue to enjoy their games. After all, we have people reverse-engineering them as it is and I would really like to see a legit alternative to the games I may have pumped money into over the years. I know it isn't likely to happen but I can dream.
 

Pipotchi

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Jan 17, 2008
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I dont understand this, I dont play it but if it's still profitable why shut it down?

As long as its adding to the bottom line then surely its a positive as well as its supporting staff, jobs etc