This game made me more excited when I first played it in closed Beta more than any game has since made me feel in learning of them. You really, really had to be there back then to get a grip on what Cryptic Studios was attempting.
At the time, the big names on the block were Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, and Star Wars Galaxies. Yes, there were others that had their thousands of players, but those were the big guns of that year. And this game offered something unreal that the planet really hadn't seen.
An incredible base diversity in character appearance creation.
A very wide range in power selection as well as customization of those powers in ability.
No loot. Absolutely zero (0) stress over loot, equipment, or wealth.
No auto attacking.
No ability chain looping macros.
A limited variety of travel powers that actually freakin' worked like they would in a comic book.
Features as well as a general environment feel that Promoted Role Play. I can't stress this one enough.
A set of Beta Test phases that would be looked upon by other companies and adapted by them.
One of the smoothest launches the planet has seen, in a world of pre DSL internet.
And then I could go on to cover this page with features that would be later developed AFTER launch that other games would either adapt or be constantly reminded of in that "It would be so cool if this other game had it too".
I am sincerely skeptacal that we will ever see another Super Hero MMO that will measure up on release as well as this one did. City of Heroes is as much a part of MMO groundbreaking and history as Ultima Online, Everquest, or Dark Age of Camelot was. It is an old game though, and I can see why the decision was made.
Just three weeks ago in an interview here, Millen said:
"2012 is shaping up to be one of the best years for City of Heroes in terms of content and updates. And I haven’t even started talking about 2013….."
This has to have hit them out of the blue. They just launched the Nature Affinity stuff about ten days ago and even more stuff just three days ago... dayum.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
I realized that almost no one played this game anymore, but I thought they were still making money at least, thanks to F2P - they said they were I thought, and at least they had an aggressive release schedule with new content.
But damn it, I spent like $100 (probably more) on the game since it went F2P. Character slots, costumes, the archetypes. My highest character is only 27! So I didn't get too much use out of it, it was something I'd play when I wanted to screw around with the costume generator.
When they went free to play, the made you re-buy the pet classes you had already purchased when you bought the game originally. So I came back to try it out on my level 50 MM, and what's this... I have to pay $$ to unlock a class that I've already paid for? No thanks.
Good luck with your cash shop GW2.
You weren't the only one. They really burned their bridges with former subscribers, and that's part of why the model failed.
I don't think so... Blade and Soul has been well recieved in Korea apparently, their new Lineage game will inevitably be a massive hit, and Wildstar looks like it will be a sleeper hit here in the West at least.
It's hard to cross them off as a one trick pony, no matter what else we may think of them.
This just proves that going free to play only prolongs the inevitable. In the end the game is still gone. You have to have the folks who are willing to by the stuff in the shop to keep it going.
But then just look at NCSOFT they have a habit of closing games. I fell bad for the guys who just bot a ton of stuff thinking the game was doing fine only to find out they been lied too about all the great things that were suposed to happen this year.
Just three weeks ago in an interview here, Millen said:
"2012 is shaping up to be one of the best years for City of Heroes in terms of content and updates. And I haven’t even started talking about 2013….."
This has to have hit them out of the blue. They just launched the Nature Affinity stuff about ten days ago and even more stuff just three days ago... dayum.
Yeah, it does seem like a geniune rocket out of nowhere.
As a side thought... how does this game die but Alganon still live?
This just proves that going free to play only prolongs the inevitable. In the end the game is still gone. You have to have the folks who are willing to by the stuff in the shop to keep it going.
But then just look at NCSOFT they have a habit of closing games. I fell bad for the guys who just bot a ton of stuff thinking the game was doing fine only to find out they been lied too about all the great things that were suposed to happen this year.
Yeah, true.
I think thew more F2P close downs like this we see the more folks will realise that when they are spending money in these games in a cash shop they aren't actually buying anything... they are just renting it.
CoH was still pulling in nearly a mil a month, Paragon Studio was deep into the next CoH free expansion, and they were working on another project. It sure appears to be a bean counter move.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
This is sad, but I sort of saw this coming for a while. Their decision to go F2P was the biggest indicator of the game's shortcomings.
Their biggest issue was the slow speed of development. Most people I played with were tired of grinding the same 1-2 events just to advance in their Incarnate abilities. I expected a new slot every issue at the very least, and they needed to publish issues every 3 months at the slowest. Instead, their timeline was on a six-month development cycle and people simply got bored and left. The recent big MMO releases finished off the little customer base they were hanging onto.
CoH was still pulling in nearly a mil a month, Paragon Studio was deep into the next CoH free expansion, and they were working on another project. It sure appears to be a bean counter move.
CoH was still pulling in nearly a mil a month, Paragon Studio was deep into the next CoH free expansion, and they were working on another project. It sure appears to be a bean counter move.
Yeah COH is certainly profitable,but there is only so much space and resources.
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what
it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience
because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in
the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you
playing an MMORPG?"
I am shocked by this and annoyed at NCSoft, however I think it would be a mistake to punish dev studios such as Anet and Carbine by not supporting GW2 or Wildstar just because they are published by NCSoft, when you know these are worthy of support. No one at Anet or Carbine are responsible for this except in the most circuitous manner, they are making great games for the future, and CoX was the past. Blame NCSoft for a bad f2p conversion if you must but punishing good developers out of spite isn’t going to bring CoX back.
I'm disappointed with NC Soft and this decision, but I'm not in possession of the full facts of what is going on behind the scenes. CoX was supposedly pulling in 2.5 million per yearly quarter, but it's uncertain if that's profit or revenue. Big difference there. Perfect World also owns Cryptic Studios, and the 5 year license on the CoX game engine is expiring. It's uknown if NC Soft met with Perfect world recently involving the license renewal, how it went, what the terms were, or any details.
What IS known is that Guild Wars 2 launched pretty well, and is doing great by the numbers to the point that all electronic download purchases of the game were suspended as they were having to review their current infrastructure of servers / bandwidth / personnel against the current players as well as physical box copy purchases that would happen in the near future.
NC Soft has also lost money (over six million a quarter) for the past half year. Aion also tanked hard with its numbers that were expected from microtransactions.
The company might have been put in the position of dealing with a double whammy that Perfect World was in a place to apply serious pressure with that game engine license as well as Guild Wars 2 needing more servers / bandwidth introduced like, yesterday-fast.
Something really sudden had to have happened. Their investment of current money into CoX for new content of issue 24 and 2013 material has already been made. Something had to have suddenly popped up that they weren't in control of.
Originally posted by GeezerGamer I wonder how this Bodes for Aion
With Blade and Soul incoming and the failing of the Aion cash shop I can easily see them sutting it down in th West and giving all players B&S beta access in an attempt to move whats left of the paying population there.
I hate the fact they are shutting down a good development studio and what was a solid game for its time. I am just going to leave it at that. Maybe there will be good news from it all one day.
Originally posted by Ryowulf Its hard to believe CoH couldn't have kept going. Profits might have been slight, but since when is making money a bad thing (even if only a little)?
EA and NCsoft don't care for 'little' profits that is the problem here. They would do the same to GW2 if it made 'little' profit but luckily..GW2 is bigger than NCSOFT.
I had so much fun with CoX over the years. I basically got my nephew into MMOs via CoX. He'll be sad to hear it's going too. I'm disappointed with NC Soft and this decision, but I'm not in possession of the full facts of what is going on behind the scenes. Played coh since launch day and very sad news didnt expect it at all I now offcailly dislike ncsoft(at least for the immediate future) they have no idea what there doing. I met a lot of good friends in CoH and will miss many of the initial relationships and generally helpful people I found in-game. Bye Forum Cartel, you won't be missed and your suffering is delicious(fu and wish the worst in your next game) But the truly "horrible" part is the fact that gave no good reason why though the obvious aspect to consider without having all the financials is it just plainly did not pull in enough profit anymore. They drop the news like that out of nowhere, and all they say is that NCSoft is "realigning focus". CoX was my 1st MMO and it will always hold a special place im my heart. I only stopped playing a few years ago for a few months but have been pretty consistent ever since but it was a good 8 year run of the game with the best teaming system around.
Unfortunately, I agree with this comment posted earlier(though I don't agree with it emotionally). "No company shuts down something that is very profitable, plain and simple. It means the game was just barely breaking even so estimates were it would be in the red by the end of the year so they're shutting down based on that (a very very typical business move) or the game is already losing money so they're shutting it down. Based on the abruptness of the announcement, I would guess it was already losing money." The game just couldn't pull its weight no matter what differing opinions were tossed around in the official forums. That will teach me to listen to people not employed directly by the studio or publisher. They didn't know squat.
Thank you for all the adventures, Paragon Studios!!!
I'm disappointed with NC Soft and this decision, but I'm not in possession of the full facts of what is going on behind the scenes. CoX was supposedly pulling in 2.5 million per yearly quarter, but it's uncertain if that's profit or revenue. Big difference there. Perfect World also owns Cryptic Studios, and the 5 year license on the CoX game engine is expiring. It's uknown if NC Soft met with Perfect world recently involving the license renewal, how it went, what the terms were, or any details.
What IS known is that Guild Wars 2 launched pretty well, and is doing great by the numbers to the point that all electronic download purchases of the game were suspended as they were having to review their current infrastructure of servers / bandwidth / personnel against the current players as well as physical box copy purchases that would happen in the near future.
NC Soft has also lost money (over six million a quarter) for the past half year. Aion also tanked hard with its numbers that were expected from microtransactions.
The company might have been put in the position of dealing with a double whammy that Perfect World was in a place to apply serious pressure with that game engine license as well as Guild Wars 2 needing more servers / bandwidth introduced like, yesterday-fast.
Something really sudden had to have happened. Their investment of current money into CoX for new content of issue 24 and 2013 material has already been made. Something had to have suddenly popped up that they weren't in control of.
I agree man on all you say is very important and we will see after how they handle this situation this will tell how intellect NCsoft is and my future purchases of ther MMO are they in or out and how they deal with this and pressure becouse is all a game of chess.
I am really getting fed up of MMOs now. first SWG, and now this.
I certainly will not be getting in to Guild Wars 2 now or any other NCsoft game. I am sure with the revenue from GW2, they could have kept COH going.
Companies these days just milk you for all your money, and then take it all away with a shut down / major change etc.
The last year has been just bad news after bad news - SWG closing, EQOA closing, SWTOR being a failure (as a MMO), SOE porting europeans off to a crappy company called ProSeiben that are actually far worse than SOE, now this.
I'm shocked, this came without warning, I'm betting they weren't making enough money off the free2play model. I'll miss playing CoH, I'm not resorting to CO or DCUO.
Actually, this is all too familiar- NCSoft vs Richard Garriot's Tabula Rasa anyone?
Comments
This game made me more excited when I first played it in closed Beta more than any game has since made me feel in learning of them. You really, really had to be there back then to get a grip on what Cryptic Studios was attempting.
At the time, the big names on the block were Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, and Star Wars Galaxies. Yes, there were others that had their thousands of players, but those were the big guns of that year. And this game offered something unreal that the planet really hadn't seen.
An incredible base diversity in character appearance creation.
A very wide range in power selection as well as customization of those powers in ability.
No loot. Absolutely zero (0) stress over loot, equipment, or wealth.
No auto attacking.
No ability chain looping macros.
A limited variety of travel powers that actually freakin' worked like they would in a comic book.
Features as well as a general environment feel that Promoted Role Play. I can't stress this one enough.
A set of Beta Test phases that would be looked upon by other companies and adapted by them.
One of the smoothest launches the planet has seen, in a world of pre DSL internet.
And then I could go on to cover this page with features that would be later developed AFTER launch that other games would either adapt or be constantly reminded of in that "It would be so cool if this other game had it too".
I am sincerely skeptacal that we will ever see another Super Hero MMO that will measure up on release as well as this one did. City of Heroes is as much a part of MMO groundbreaking and history as Ultima Online, Everquest, or Dark Age of Camelot was. It is an old game though, and I can see why the decision was made.
Just three weeks ago in an interview here, Millen said:
"2012 is shaping up to be one of the best years for City of Heroes in terms of content and updates. And I haven’t even started talking about 2013….."
This has to have hit them out of the blue. They just launched the Nature Affinity stuff about ten days ago and even more stuff just three days ago... dayum.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
I realized that almost no one played this game anymore, but I thought they were still making money at least, thanks to F2P - they said they were I thought, and at least they had an aggressive release schedule with new content.
But damn it, I spent like $100 (probably more) on the game since it went F2P. Character slots, costumes, the archetypes. My highest character is only 27! So I didn't get too much use out of it, it was something I'd play when I wanted to screw around with the costume generator.
R.I.P. City of Heroes and my 17 characters there
You weren't the only one. They really burned their bridges with former subscribers, and that's part of why the model failed.
I don't think so... Blade and Soul has been well recieved in Korea apparently, their new Lineage game will inevitably be a massive hit, and Wildstar looks like it will be a sleeper hit here in the West at least.
It's hard to cross them off as a one trick pony, no matter what else we may think of them.
This just proves that going free to play only prolongs the inevitable. In the end the game is still gone. You have to have the folks who are willing to by the stuff in the shop to keep it going.
But then just look at NCSOFT they have a habit of closing games. I fell bad for the guys who just bot a ton of stuff thinking the game was doing fine only to find out they been lied too about all the great things that were suposed to happen this year.
Yeah, it does seem like a geniune rocket out of nowhere.
As a side thought... how does this game die but Alganon still live?
The MMORPG universe is a weird weird place.
Yeah, true.
I think thew more F2P close downs like this we see the more folks will realise that when they are spending money in these games in a cash shop they aren't actually buying anything... they are just renting it.
CoH was still pulling in nearly a mil a month, Paragon Studio was deep into the next CoH free expansion, and they were working on another project. It sure appears to be a bean counter move.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
This is sad, but I sort of saw this coming for a while. Their decision to go F2P was the biggest indicator of the game's shortcomings.
Their biggest issue was the slow speed of development. Most people I played with were tired of grinding the same 1-2 events just to advance in their Incarnate abilities. I expected a new slot every issue at the very least, and they needed to publish issues every 3 months at the slowest. Instead, their timeline was on a six-month development cycle and people simply got bored and left. The recent big MMO releases finished off the little customer base they were hanging onto.
It is Ncsoft what else do you expect?
Yeah COH is certainly profitable,but there is only so much space and resources.
Hey, look at this new tin foil hat I purchased on ebay!
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
I am shocked by this and annoyed at NCSoft, however I think it would be a mistake to punish dev studios such as Anet and Carbine by not supporting GW2 or Wildstar just because they are published by NCSoft, when you know these are worthy of support. No one at Anet or Carbine are responsible for this except in the most circuitous manner, they are making great games for the future, and CoX was the past. Blame NCSoft for a bad f2p conversion if you must but punishing good developers out of spite isn’t going to bring CoX back.
Agreed.
I'm disappointed with NC Soft and this decision, but I'm not in possession of the full facts of what is going on behind the scenes. CoX was supposedly pulling in 2.5 million per yearly quarter, but it's uncertain if that's profit or revenue. Big difference there. Perfect World also owns Cryptic Studios, and the 5 year license on the CoX game engine is expiring. It's uknown if NC Soft met with Perfect world recently involving the license renewal, how it went, what the terms were, or any details.
What IS known is that Guild Wars 2 launched pretty well, and is doing great by the numbers to the point that all electronic download purchases of the game were suspended as they were having to review their current infrastructure of servers / bandwidth / personnel against the current players as well as physical box copy purchases that would happen in the near future.
NC Soft has also lost money (over six million a quarter) for the past half year. Aion also tanked hard with its numbers that were expected from microtransactions.
The company might have been put in the position of dealing with a double whammy that Perfect World was in a place to apply serious pressure with that game engine license as well as Guild Wars 2 needing more servers / bandwidth introduced like, yesterday-fast.
Something really sudden had to have happened. Their investment of current money into CoX for new content of issue 24 and 2013 material has already been made. Something had to have suddenly popped up that they weren't in control of.
With Blade and Soul incoming and the failing of the Aion cash shop I can easily see them sutting it down in th West and giving all players B&S beta access in an attempt to move whats left of the paying population there.
EA and NCsoft don't care for 'little' profits that is the problem here. They would do the same to GW2 if it made 'little' profit but luckily..GW2 is bigger than NCSOFT.
Honestly was one of the few games, and the only MMO, I've continually had fun playing.
This is sad.
Farewell! From the most deadly super villain of all time,
-@Stogie_Sam
a yo ho ho
I had so much fun with CoX over the years. I basically got my nephew into MMOs via CoX. He'll be sad to hear it's going too. I'm disappointed with NC Soft and this decision, but I'm not in possession of the full facts of what is going on behind the scenes. Played coh since launch day and very sad news didnt expect it at all I now offcailly dislike ncsoft(at least for the immediate future) they have no idea what there doing. I met a lot of good friends in CoH and will miss many of the initial relationships and generally helpful people I found in-game. Bye Forum Cartel, you won't be missed and your suffering is delicious(fu and wish the worst in your next game) But the truly "horrible" part is the fact that gave no good reason why though the obvious aspect to consider without having all the financials is it just plainly did not pull in enough profit anymore. They drop the news like that out of nowhere, and all they say is that NCSoft is "realigning focus". CoX was my 1st MMO and it will always hold a special place im my heart. I only stopped playing a few years ago for a few months but have been pretty consistent ever since but it was a good 8 year run of the game with the best teaming system around.
Unfortunately, I agree with this comment posted earlier(though I don't agree with it emotionally). "No company shuts down something that is very profitable, plain and simple. It means the game was just barely breaking even so estimates were it would be in the red by the end of the year so they're shutting down based on that (a very very typical business move) or the game is already losing money so they're shutting it down. Based on the abruptness of the announcement, I would guess it was already losing money." The game just couldn't pull its weight no matter what differing opinions were tossed around in the official forums. That will teach me to listen to people not employed directly by the studio or publisher. They didn't know squat.
Thank you for all the adventures, Paragon Studios!!!
I agree man on all you say is very important and we will see after how they handle this situation this will tell how intellect NCsoft is and my future purchases of ther MMO are they in or out and how they deal with this and pressure becouse is all a game of chess.
I just paid 6 months sub
I am really getting fed up of MMOs now. first SWG, and now this.
I certainly will not be getting in to Guild Wars 2 now or any other NCsoft game. I am sure with the revenue from GW2, they could have kept COH going.
Companies these days just milk you for all your money, and then take it all away with a shut down / major change etc.
The last year has been just bad news after bad news - SWG closing, EQOA closing, SWTOR being a failure (as a MMO), SOE porting europeans off to a crappy company called ProSeiben that are actually far worse than SOE, now this.
Star Trek Online - Best Free MMORPG of 2012
I'm shocked, this came without warning, I'm betting they weren't making enough money off the free2play model. I'll miss playing CoH, I'm not resorting to CO or DCUO.
Actually, this is all too familiar- NCSoft vs Richard Garriot's Tabula Rasa anyone?