Remember City of Heroes? You won’t find it on Steam, since this superhero MMO was shut down in 2012. But the fans (and fan servers) have been keeping it alive, and one server, City of Heroes: Homecoming has been given the nod by publisher NCSoft.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a superhero game clawing its way out of the grave! City of Heroes hasn’t gone full on Marvel Zombies, but this villain-battling MMORPG was officially shut down over ten years ago.
Since then, various fan-servers, or collections of servers, have been running their own iterations, including City of Heroes: Homecoming and City of Heroes: Freedom. Now, the former has been granted an official license by NCSoft, who published the original game and hold the rights to the series.
“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”, reads the announcement.
It also confirms that NCSoft will not have access to players’ data and that the Homecoming team will continue to work on improving the game. And, it reassures players that the game will remain free, though it doesn’t state how much, if any, money NCSoft is receiving under this agreement
NCSoft still retains the IP rights so if they want to do something with City of Heroes, whether that’s a PC MMO, mobile game, or something else, they can.
City of Heroes, despite the name, isn’t all about being a hero. If you’re champing at the bit for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, you can also play this MMO as a villain, since it folds in standalone sequel City of Villains.
Does this mean that NCSoft is going to be bringing the legal hammer down on other servers? Probably not. Marvel Comics did sue NCSoft (alleging copyright infringement and other issues) who settled out of court. But, to date, NCSoft hasn’t gone after those who’ve been keeping City of Heroes alive(ish).
If you want to get your cape on (it’s free to play CoH), you can find out more on the City of Heroes: Homecoming forums. For more villain-battling, here are the best superhero games and the best games like Spider-Man Remastered.
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