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City of Heroes: A CoH Spiritual Successor? It's Closer Than You Think
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
A new post has appeared on the City of Titans site by Missing Worlds Studios President Nate Downes. According to the lengthy post, the team behind City of Titans has been in negotiations with NCSoft to acquire licensing for City of Heroes in some form or another.
Downes explains that Korean business practices are vastly different than those in the West and that the team has been working for a year to build the framework of relationships that would allow for a discussion of City of Heroes to be possible. After nearly nine months of communication with NCSoft's Business Manager Jae Soo Yoon, it appears there at least exists a possibility that the conversation will continue.
Introductions in place, Downes and team have made a proposal to NCSoft regarding utilizing City of Heroes licensing. As it stands:
A separate company would be created that would handle licensing and that would make a copy of the i23 server. At this time, characters and source code are not included.
The agreement allows licensing of trademarks for all projects based on the original City of Heroes game and would eliminate the need for "spiritual successor" titles by allowing reference to CoH
The Atlas Park Revival project would be would be given the Stamp of Approval and the City of Titans game build would be licensed to them to, in effect, create a City of Heroes v1.5
A part of the negotiation process, Downes et al were asked to wait until September to reveal that these negotiations were taking place. Being September 1st, the show of good faith has been completed. Downes credits the patience of the team in getting this far with NCSoft by utilizing methods preferred by Korean business partners.
Finally, the report indicates that, while all of the above pieces are in play, the deal is still not finalized and, in fact, fall through completely.
Want to read the full post and to participate in the discussion? Check it out on the CoHTitan.com forum.
What do you think of the news? Let us know in the comments!
Comments
No matter how cynical you become, its never enough to keep up - Lily Tomlin
I'm not sure I see the point. Seems like a waste of money if they aren't actually getting any of the source code or the game to use.
The name City of Heroes wasn't exactly what made the game so special to many people.
The language of the post is a bit ambiguous about what the "copy of the i23 server" means exactly. I suspect that, until the deal goes through with NCSoft, we won't know exactly what the terms of the licensing agreement actually mean.
@Mtibbs1989: This is a legitimate post by a legitimate company obtaining legitimate rights to the game name, etc. It is not a "private server running a dead game" via illegal or illegitimately used software.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hrmm so this smoke and mirrors is going public now, since the fact that what was it $400k or $500k in money was it in that Kickstarter and the fact that they are 10 to 12 months in, and the best they have to show for it was a badly done particle effects render movie for their City of Titans project?
Also, I can't be the only one that sits here and notes how fishy this is, that after big named money companies tries to buy it, NCSoft suddenly changes its mind? Really, do 25,000 people really think they have that much of an influence? A fishing dock smells less fishy than this smoke and mirrors I am calling it, especially the very suspect wording that tells people not to even ask, that the demand to keep CoH open to begin with caused NCSoft to get cold feet? That's a load if I ever heard any.
Mystery Bounty
Somebody, somewhere has better skills as you have, more experience as you have, is smarter than you, has more friends as you do and can stay online longer. Just pray he's not out to get you.
All those player numbers (subscription or not) and all the actual profit from running CoH was still miniscule in relation to NCsoft's earning from other sources. It was their lowest earning title and the cost of maintaining Paragon Studios was too high. As far as NC was concerned it was a "throwaway operation" and they saw no benefit to trying to either cut costs or fund CoH 2. CoH was a North American and EU "thing" and the money just wasn't there compared to the billions of people that play their games in Asia and the whole of the East. Plus, if CoH continued to run then those would just be people that wouldn't be playing Guild Wars 2 and they couldn't have that.
NC really doesn't care about us here in the West and we should return the favor. Such a shame that Wildstar is being published by them. If Carbine Studios could find another publisher I'd play it tomorrow. ...... On a side note, I really hope this deal falls through. I'd rather pull a tooth than see Missing Worlds Media get their filthy hands on the old girl. She deserves a better home.
I've got a feevah, and the only prescription... is more cowbell.
CoX has been a long time returning, I am excited to things move forward!
(AKA: Remaugen)
Licensing is just PART of the deal for the trademarks and name usage. The copy of the i23 server -which I assume is the game's direct program -just not source code or character codes from the CoH original game. Instead of just making a "spiritual successor" to the original game, they're cutting a deal to actually use the game itself and directly use the original City of Heroes (thus the comment in the article of 1.5).
If I read it correctly. They get a copy of the issue 23 build of City of Heroes.
And with that they then can start adding content, optimizations and changes with the toolset. Basically continue working on the game how it was.
They don´t get the sourcecode, because with that they would be able to create a whole new game from scratch. which NCSoft ofcourse isn´t going to allow.
This have been a good conversation
Well, it died shortly before i24 had a chance to go live.
So I imagine the "copy of the i23 server" means it'll be the game at the state it was in at i23. Hopefully they'll manage to get it to i24, which seemed like it was going to be one of the best updates the game had ever seen in terms of improvements, with the ability to further customize the visual effects of secondary powers - such as the hated "glowy hands" that came with Haste. I looked forward to turning those off myself, or to turn them into a color that matched the rest of my powerset.
Also... well done to the people of Missing Worlds Media! Once again I stand awed by your dedication! And that comment stands even if the deal goes nowhere, since even getting this far shows an incredible amount of devotion to your cause!
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
I am skeptical as the next.
[mod edit]
[mod edit]This is an ACTUAL company working on an ACTUAL game (City of Titans). They have actually made contact with with Korean head office of NCSoft, [mod edit]They are in ACTUAL talks about PURCHASING the IP and using that in their new game.
[mod edit]
============================================
OT: Best news I've heard in ages! I hope the talks keep going well
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Even the devs from Paragon studios were not able to make a deal with NCSoft what make one
hope that they will come thru this time.
And the "Other Group" that will handle the IP is Korean as well? It does not make sense to pour
valuable time and effort for so little in return. I would rather continue creating a new IP that way
there is no hassle in having to deal with a third party. Sorry to say but this seems a complete waste of time.