City of Heroes, Developer Paragon Studios Shutting Down

Nobody likes it when an MMO shuts down, but it's especially heart-wrenching when it happens to an MMO a lot of people actually liked. City of Heroes was one such MMO that, sadly, finds itself very near its end.

Publisher NCSoft, who picked up the rights to the game from original developer Cryptic Studios, announced today that the game would cease operation before the end of the year, and that developer Paragon Studios would also be closing. The game's yearly subscription fees and microtransaction-based online store have also ceased as of today.

Launching in 2004, City of Heroes has endured developer transfers, years of competition against other MMO juggernauts, and even seemed to be doing okay in a free-to-play remodeling that took place last year. No reason was given for today's announcement, save for a brief mention of "a realignment of company focus and publishing support" at NCSoft.

Paragon's community manager posted a brief farewell on the company's site, and made special mention to any potential hiring companies out there to keep an eye out for former Paragon employees, saying "Hire these people. You won't regret it."

When City of Heroes' date of closure is officially announced, we'll undoubtedly start planning for some kind of live stream send-off.

Damn, that sucks.

Awww that's sad to hear, that really was a really interesting and special game

Sucks to hear, but the death of an MMO streams are always amazing.

Is it time for another live stream MMO shut down already?

Another end-of-MMO stream/video feature? Sign me up. I enjoyed that game a lot when I played it. Hopefully they're planning something crazy for the last couple of months.

Another MMO end-of-days livestream? Yes please.

Hope Ryan does another stream for this one

Nooooooooooooooooooooo my first mmo!

R.I.P Flamatron, you speeding ball of heroic fire.

This game probably gave me the best memories of any mmo to date. Shame I will never be able to boot it up again. City of Heroes, you were awesome.

This was my first MMORPG, long before I got into WoW.

So many great memories from this game, even though I never hit the level cap. How could I? Putzing around with the character creator and power sets was never not fun; I was constantly tinkering with new characters and builds!

Fuck dammit, I wanted to get back into this.

I was just talking to a friend of mine that works there today. He didn't mention anything, that jerk. Hopefully that at least means he's lined something else up :/

EDIT: annnd now he mentions it -____-

He JUST moved into a new place too. Ugh. Hopefully he, and anyone else affected, are able to line something up soon

This is sad news indeed.

I could never stay with CoH for very long, but I always loved going back from time to time.

I had some decent times with this game. I didn't play it long, but a friend and I messed around with it freshman year of college. I was constantly getting shit for "not having a super power, just a really big gun. Anyone can have a really big gun. You're just an asshole." which would then lead to insults just being tossed back and forth.

So thanks for the good times, City of Heroes.

What the fuck really?

I thought CoH was still doing well. This really sucks.

Honestly I think this MMO is the one I had the most fun with. Granted, it was my first, after FFXI, which I don't count because it was terrible, but I still preferred it to WoW and whatever else.

Me as Radioactive Man fighting alongside Statesman and Manticore to repel the aliens, aw yeah! I didn't play long after CoV came out, though. Always meant to come back, but never did.

So I've been playing this game for 7 years now. All those memories, good and bad. all the people I met in that game. It was great. I can't believe it's ending. Shocked and speechless.

This was the second MMO I played and while it was pretty fun, it just didn't keep my attention beyond a couple of months. Back in January I went back and checked it out again and it really hadn't aged well.

That said, it's still surprising, and unfortunate, to get this sudden announcement. They did a good job hiding whatever issues it may have had.

Aww dammit, was just about to break top ten SGs too, Captain Fallout will be missed...

Why the fuck do people keep closing down studios like that? They formed it to have them keep working on City of Heroes like 2 years ago and instead of assigning them a new task, say a new game, they just fire everyone.

Well at least the end of days live stream is confirmed now :/. Sad to see a decent MMO go.

Aged as it was this game still broke ground on character creation freedom. During trials I must have spent more time just messing with the paperdoll then I did playing the actual game.

Another live stream of the end, please. Very interested.

Damn. That sucks. Although, I didn't like it when it went Free to Play, they changed a lot of what made it fun (the customization became monetized heavily) but it was a great game in its hay day none the less.  
 
It is old now, though, it was bound to happen eventually. Great game, though. My only complaint for it was lack of any real substantial end game. They never really made one either and I never really liked the player made stuff that got implemented. Even when they added stuff, they reused assets so it felt like doing the same thing. 
 
Still great game though. It will be remembered.

Hell, it's been a good run. Thank you Paragon Studios for the great work, may everyone find new employment <3

Bad news. CoH was a great MMO that kind of lacked an endgame which put off a lot of people.

Going free to play re-kindled my interest until I logged in and saw the absolute draconian way they set it up. It made Zynga F2P games look generous in comparison. You practically had to swipe your visa card just to log in. I understand you have to have paywalls and monetize your game, but jesus. If any F2P MMO deserved to fail, it was this one.

That's a major bummer. Kinda tempted to log in to see my characters one last time :P

Oh holy shit. This is the worst. I haven't played in so long but this game took up a whole hell of a lot of my time back in the day. God, I used to be a household name around the forums there. I'll have to see if they're still letting people play until the end. It'd be a shame to just let this go without seeing it off.

Man I can still remember some of the dumb names I had for my characters in that game ... Kid Proton, Autumn Inferno. Ok I can remember 2, but still that was a long time ago!

City of Heroes was the first (and only) MMO I played with some semi-seriousness. This is kind of bittersweet for me.

This sucks I just built a PC and was considering reinstalling this game, that i played a few years ago. too bad, it was a fun one.

Game: City of Heroes

Date Purchased: June 25 2004 11:39

Serial Code: EEGG-WDLP-YU29-XRPE-4ZH6

Still have this copy pasted in a text file from 2004. Oldest file on my computer.

Damnit Ryan! Stop putting people out of jobs!

But can't wait for the end of mmo video content

never liked them since a shill was standing in orgrimmar urging people to play their game.

I guess it's time for me to break out Captain Concussion one more time before the year is over.

City of Heroes was such a fun MMO, and I rather enjoyed the four years I spent playing it.

Long live the Circle of Jerks. Jerk for life.

I remember COH being the first MMO to have customization that I spent well over an hour on, only to immediately go back and start making another one. That game was so damn cool when it launched.

It's just another sad case of the older model not working out for games. Just reminds you every MMO will be gone some day :(

This was my first MMO i will miss this game as i had some great time and met some cool people through it.

It's still free to play right now if anyone wants to check it out before the end, you just can't do post 50 content.

Man I played so much of COH and COV a few years ago, I had so much fun with those games. It is sad that it has to end.

This game was a lot of fun. Even just the character creator gave me countless hours of entertainment. A shame to see more people lose their jobs...

@Ryan This is your cue !

Alright, time to start thinking of some names for this event.

Not like this...

What a major bummer. How am I going to fight crime with borderline racism, without a lousy quest system? Nowhere, that's where.

Hart broken here, I still really like to play this game. I will miss the great community and my toons. Here is hoping they sell the IP and it gets the love it deserves.

CoH ties for my most played MMO. Sadly, that's only a couple of months, but I did enjoy the game. It's also too bad that no one made a decent superhero MMO that could have taken its place, but honestly, I probably wouldn't pick it up even if it existed.

So sad...I was a fan of this game ever since it's beta way back in 2004. I got it the day it way released and have been playing it on and off since then. I made one of my best friends playing this game. It's so heartbreaking to know it won't be around any more. A few months ago my friend and I were considering going back to CoX...man, I wish we would have.

Maybe there is still time for a farewell tour.

@BBAlpert said:

Not like this...

I've played, and continued to play CoH for years now. It truly is the most impressive MMO in my eyes, and even when they made it free, it only got better.

This sucks a lot.