NCSoft Will Allow City Of Heroes’ Private Server To Continue, In Rare Move For The Industry
NCSoft has granted a license to the private server that revived City of Heroes.
City of Heroes was a superhero themed MMO from the far flung past of the 2000s. Korean publisher NCSoft already found massive success worldwide thanks to Lineage, but was looking to expand with titles that would cater to Western tastes.
The game revolved around one Paragon City, where super powered characters could join up to complete missions, and fight villains, or heroes. This was unavowedly a massively successful title in the genre, racking up multiple awards across the industry, and sustaining itself for a good eight years. After twenty three major updates, two expansions, and flirting with free to play, NCSoft shut the title down in 2013, with then developer Paragon Studios citing “realignment of company focus and publishing support”.
In 2019, the source code for City of Heroes was found, enabling fans to create a private server for the game, called Homecoming. NCSoft notably did not move against the server’s creation, given that its very existence was violating the company’s intellectual property rights.
As reported by PC Gamer, Homecoming’s operators shared this message in an FAQ:
“Homecoming has been granted a licence to operate a City of Heroes™ server and further develop the game—subject to conditions and limitations under the contract.”
As it turns out, they cite a positive and productive relationship with NCSoft since they started working on the server. They also confirmed that the people who have been playing on the server are going to find that their data and progress are safe and won’t be destroyed.
The server runs on volunteer donations, and they mention a need to raise donation goals. Given the server’s popularity, they
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