Superhero MMO City of Heroes has been somewhat revived, as a fan-server has been given official licence by NCSoft.
For those unfamiliar, City of Heroes was a 2004 superhero MMO from NCSoft and developer Cryptic Studios (before later being developed by Paragon Studios). It was highly praised, and even endured a lawsuit from Marvel — a legal battle stemming from players re-creating their characters until the affair was ultimately settled in 2005.
The game had twenty-three major updates, two expansions, and was fully acquired by NCSoft in 2007. Cryptic Studios would go on to make Champions Online, and NCSoft created Paragon Studios to work purely on the game. Nonetheless, City of Heroes shut down in 2012, following a brief period of offering free-to-play with limitations in 2011.
Paragon Studios stated this was “In a realignment of company focus and publishing support.” Despite reports of a revival in 2014, nothing would manifest.
However, in 2019 it was discovered a private server — still running before City of Heroes shut down — was still going. SCORE (Secret Cabal Of Reverse Engineers) had managed to keep the server a secret, and invite-only.
Multiple private servers would crop up over the years but one of special note is from the “Homecoming” server, launched in April 2019, and even creating new content. The server owners made a special announcement at the start of January — jointly under a new forum account.
“We’d like to thank you all for your patience over the past few years, and we’re incredibly thrilled to announce that it’s paid off: NCSOFT® has officially granted Homecoming a license to host City of Heroes™.”
“We’ll have much more to share on this in the coming months, however right now we’’’d like to make a few things clear:” Homecoming then listed that “Your accounts and characters are safe. Development of new content will continue. Homecoming will continue to be completely free. We will continue to be funded entirely through donations.”
“We will be on hand in this thread to answer any questions you may have, so ask away – however, please be aware that we aren’t able to talk about everything just yet, but we will be sure to answer as much as we can as soon as we are able,” Homecoming concluded, before promising, “Exciting times are ahead!”
The subsequent FAQ then explained that the license meant Homecoming could develop City of Heroes (“subject to conditions and limitations under the contract”). It also noted the donation-based model could continue, as Homecoming was “not required to pay any up-front or recurring license fees.”
“We continue to be overwhelmed by the generosity of the community when it comes to keeping the server online.” Other than a temporary increase in donation goals for (for one-off legal costs and to build a “disaster recovery fund”), players will hardly be affected.
Existing characters and progress will remain untouched, NCSoft won’t have access to player data, and a new management team will be formed (with the same project lead and including members of the original admin team). Even Homecoming being a non-profit organization will continue.
An Open Letter then came on the 17th of January, penned by “City Council” member “Widower,” emphasized the goal of Homecoming was the same as it ever was — keeping City of Heroes alive and open to as many people as possible.
This was why — way back in August 2019 — it was revealed Homecoming began negotiations with NCSoft that would finally pay off five years later.
“It’s been a long road, and we know some of our decisions have seemed questionable or frustrating at times. We know we’ve made some mistakes and missteps along the way, but our motive has never changed. Everything we’ve done has been in service of that original goal,” Widower assured.
“And it worked. Nearly five years later, the talks succeeded and Homecoming is now officially licensed to host City of Heroes. We’re back for real now – and it’s still a bit surreal!” Widower admitted.
“This wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our entire team – the Game Masters (including those no longer with us), the development team, and the admin team – as well as you, the community. Without everyone’s unwavering support, none of this would’ve been possible. Thank you.”
Widower’s Open Letter continued, detailing the upcoming merges with other servers, the “Issue 27: Page 7” update entering open beta soon, and applications for new developers and game masters to join them.