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City of Heroes, Developer Paragon Studios Shutting Down

The long-running MMO will officially go offline by year's end.

It's been hanging around since 2004, but as of 2012, City of Heroes shall be no more.
It's been hanging around since 2004, but as of 2012, City of Heroes shall be no more.

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.

Alex Navarro on Google+

165 Comments

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veektarius

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Edited By veektarius

As an MMO, it had its problems, but in terms of character creation and its social hub, I'd say CoH stood out from the pack. Its a shame its lessons weren't better incorporated in later attempts.

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deactivated-58afe98346ace

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If you guys are gonna do something maybe you could get in contact with some people from The Cape or something

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davidh219

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Edited By davidh219

City of Heroes was the best MMO ever. Everybody playing it was incredibly nice. In my 5+ years of playing it on and off I have never once met an asshole, which is more than I can say for WoW. I played that for all of two weeks and EVERYBODY was an asshole, and the game itself bored me to tears.

The movement powers were fun, all of the powers were fun and looked really cool, and the writing could be downright hilarious at times. This is my goddamned childhood being flushed down the toilet and I am not a happy camper. I can't believe I'm about to cry over a video game. The rest of my day is going to be shitty now, I just know it. R.I.P. Paragon City--your crime filled streets and district-separating war walls will forever live on in my heart and mind.

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Pvtmiller

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Edited By Pvtmiller

Meh. I tried this game and it seemed boring and grindy.

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avidwriter

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Edited By avidwriter

Surprised it lasted that long.

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onyxghost

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Edited By onyxghost

Not like this....

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jayspadez

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Edited By jayspadez

@Animasta: it was on steam i believe

anyways, that was the first mmo i played, while dcuo may have more action combatwise, coh made me feel like a superhero when i played, i got to see my creation and ideas come to life. its kind of sad to see it go. i really hope ncsoft reconsiders and just changes the business model of it. ill pour a lil liquor out for ya

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darkjester74

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Edited By darkjester74

Sad news, but all in all I think CoH had a great run. It was the first MMO I played consistently, met a lot of great friends there and I have a lot of great memories from that game. Best of luck to the folks at Paragon, best wishes!

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Irishdoom

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Edited By Irishdoom

I had a lot of fun in the early days of this game, but it just didn't hold me like WoW and Asheron's Call did. It was more a diversion than anything else. I guess it's kinda bad if the most fun is had in character creation. ;)

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Brackynews

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Edited By Brackynews

Also my first MMO, and a main source of my appreciation for Cryptic Studios' "formula". There are certain signature things they do quite well; and being a flyer was awesome. Excellent way to solo the game.

The fact NC and Paragon never really changed anything in 6 years was always puzzling to me. But clearly it survived without an overhaul thanks to subscriber loyalty. When I gave it another try after the F2P conversion, I just couldn't stomach the same 20 second music loops from 2004, and having to respawn literally 2 miles away at a hospital, instead of inside my instance. Games have changed, dude.

So yeah, I hope the devs can do more with a modern property. Cryptic has lost some key people on STO recently, and if there's one thing Cryptic does consistently, it's welcome back former employees.

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poisonjam7

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Edited By poisonjam7

This game definitely had one of the best, most mature communities of any MMO out there. It was a breath of fresh air after hanging around Stormwind City for a few hours.

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Griffinmills

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Edited By Griffinmills

Been playing CoH since the beginning.  Here is to hoping they get something in place to preserve the game because it is one of the all time greats for me.  Go Go Super Super Group!
Edit: Petition here...
http://www.change.org/petitions/ncsoft-keep-ncsoft-from-shutting-down-city-of-heroes#

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forrest40pf

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Edited By forrest40pf

Thanks for covering this issue, guys. It's good to see so many people concerned about the shutdown.

We've started a new Youtube series centered around the shutdown of CoH, sharing our thoughts and showcasing the features of this wonderful MMO! Check the first episode out at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q_IV8cjT3Y

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Suits

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Edited By Suits

livestream the server shutdown November 30?

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Tylea002

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Edited By Tylea002

So, it's going away on November 30th. Is that too close to GOTY for a big shutdown event, or will GB be there? This MMO is easily the closest one to my heart, and it will be missed dearly, so I'd love to see it go out in the MxO/SWG style. Are the crew planning on doing so or not?