Epic's Defunct MOBA Paragon Is Back Under New Ownership
After Fortnite's success eclipsed Paragon, Epic shut down the MOBA's servers just two years after the game's beta release. Now, thanks to free assets from the game on the Unreal Marketplace and a trademark agreement with Epic, Paragon is making a return four years later, albeit under a new title and new ownership.
As pointed out by PC Gamer, Paragon: The Overprime is a Paragon rework that's being developed by the South Korean studio Netmarble. The free-to-play title is currently in open beta until November 21. It's headed to Steam and the Epic Games Store in the near future, but it's unclear when the full game will release.
According to Paragon: The Overprime's Epic Games Store page, when released, it will function as a live service game, with new heroes being added over time.
"We invite you to Prime where the space opera of a symphony of heroes echoes across the universe," the game's tagline reads.
Epic released $12 million of Paragon assets for free on the Unreal Marketplace when Paragon's servers closed. A few other games have utilized its assets since their release in 2018, though this marks the first time Epic has granted a studio permission to adopt Paragon's branding.
Epic initially shut down Paragon's servers in 2018 shortly after slowing its development to focus on Fortnite. Before its demise, we called Paragon "equal parts strikingly beautiful and exciting to behold" in our 2016 preview.
Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they've contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.
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