City of Heroes will be shutting down their servers today, November 30th at 11:59pm pacific time.
City of Heroes started in April 2004, devolved by Cryptic Studios and published by NCSoft. Since then, they’ve released twenty-three free updates to the game. These updates ranged from new missions, arc types, villains, new areas to explore and so much more. City of Heroes allowed players to create their own super hero, starting from the ground up as they gained momentum to fight off the threats that plagued Paragon City. In October of 2005, City of Villains was launched, giving players the chance to be the bad guy. April 2009 saw the birth of Paragon Studios, freeing CoX from Cryptic Studios, allowing the employees of Paragon Studios to focusing on this MMO. In June of 2011, City of Heroes and Villains went free to play, giving bonuses to those who still wish to pay to play. On August 31, Paragon Studios released a farewell letter addressed to all of their fans. It was then, officially, we knew that NCSoft would be closing the doors on Paragon Studios, thus bringing an end to City of Heroes and City of Villains.
Farewell, from all of us at Paragon Studios
This morning we announced that Paragon Studios will be taking to the skies of City of Heroes for the last time.
In a realignment of company focus and publishing support, NCsoft has made the decision to close Paragon Studios. Effective immediately, all development on City of Heroes will cease and we will begin preparations to sunset the world’s first, and best, Super Hero MMORPG before the end of the year. As part of this, all recurring subscription billing and Paragon Market purchasing will be discontinued effective immediately. We will have more information regarding a detailed timeline for the cessation of services and what you can expect in game in the coming weeks.
The team here at Paragon deserves special praise for all that we have accomplished over the last 5+ years. These developers are some of the most creative and talented people in the gaming industry. By now, we’ve all been given this news internally, but to anyone who may be reading this message after the fact; know that your hard work and dedication has not gone unappreciated or unnoticed. To any potential studios looking to grow your team; hire these people. You won’t regret it.
To our Community,
Thank you. Thank you for your years of support. You’ve been with us every step of the way, sharing in our challenges, encouraging us to make City of Heroes better, more than everyone else thought it could be. We couldn’t have come this far without you. I implore you all, focus on the good things of CoH and Paragon Studios. Don’t dwell on the “how” or the “why”, but rather join us in celebrating the legacy of an amazing partnership between the players and the development team.
Thank you, and I’ll see you in the skies, one last time.
Andy Belford
Community Manager
Paragon Studios
I haven’t played CoH since they went free to play, however I did spend roughly five years off and on playing this super hero MMO game. Even when I wasn’t playing it, I still thought about it. I find it funny that when I say that I want to play Star Wars the Old Republic, I tend to say CoH instead. Even though I haven’t played it in a while, City of Heroes still stayed on my mind. It wasn’t the first MMO that I played, but it was the first that I loved and truly enjoyed, be it playing solo or with other people.
We all have games that we love from the past that we just don’t have the time for. However, those games are still there, collecting dust perhaps, but they are still there. All we have to do is pick it up and play. With CoH shutting down their servers, replaying those memories will never happen again. Once CoH is gone, it is gone for good. There will be no going back to play it for nostalgic reasons. I can’t help thinking about the Wreck-it Ralph movie and how scared the characters were about being unplugged for good. I can’t help thinking that these thoughts are running through the characters that I created within the City of Heroes universe and it saddens me.
Thank you Paragon Studios for the many years of fun, memories, friendships and all the grinding. We’re sad to see you and City of Heroes and Villains go, but we are grateful for what you gave us.
