Normally, when a MMORPG closes, private servers are the only way to enjoy it, but these survive in a precarious legal grey area. For City of Heroes, things have radically changed.
The publisher of the game, NCSoft, has granted the private server City of Heroes: Homecoming an official license to run the game.
This pretty much means that the beloved superhero RPG is in a way back in an official capacity, albeit not directly handled by its original publisher and developers.
While NCsoft retains full control of the franchise which means they could decide to shut down the server at any time, the presence of an official license agreement drastically reduces that chance, affording City of Heroes: Homecoming players the ability to enjoy the game with a bit of peace of mind.
According to the announcement made on the game's official forums, existing accounts will be preserved, the game will continue to remain completely free and supported by donations, and independent development of new content will carry on.
The developers of Homecoming also hope to work with the owners of other servers and possibly consolidate the user base.
Not only the development of new content will continue, but the development team is also expected to expand.
Speaking of development, the team behind Homecoming has created its own launcher, and providing an in-house installation and patching solution is part of the licensing agreement.
For those who are worried, personal user data will not be shared with NCSoft.
If you're unfamiliar with City of Heroes, it's a MMORPG developed by Cryptic Studios and released in 2004. It was then acquired by NCSoft in 2007.
While loved by many and considered a classic of the genre, the game was unfortunately shut down in 2012, causing consternation among its many fans.
I'm fairly sure that today's news will make many MMORPG players of my generation extremely happy. I certainly share the sentiment.
Incidentally, a spiritual successor titled Ship of Heroes is currently in development and being tested through a series of betas.
