Despite a petition from players reaching over 20,000 signatures, emails sent and even according to a statement by NCSoft, packages arriving in the mail, the company has said it cannot save the soon to close City of Heroes MMO. Ultimately it comes down to money and there just isn't enough to keep the game and studio behind it going.
"We wanted to let you know that your voices have been heard and your concerns have been taken into serious consideration," reads the NCSoft Statement. "We appreciate the overwhelmingly constructive and positive messages in the emails, notes, and packages you've sent in support of the game. It has not been an easy decision for us to close Paragon Studios® and prepare to shut down City of Heroes. We've exhausted all options including the selling of the studio and the rights to the City of Heroes intellectual property, but in the end, efforts to do so were not successful. City of Heroes has a special place in all of our hearts, and we want to ensure its reputation and the memories we share for the game end on a high note."
To send City of Heroes off properly, there's a host of planned end-game events, from extra experience weekends - for those that haven't levelled all the way yet - to special game parties. The full list is as follows:
- Summer Blockbuster – October 5 – October 8
- Double XP – October 18 – October 22
- Halloween Event – October 26 – October 29
- Winter Event – November 9 – November 12
- Rikti Invasion – November 23- 30
- Server Shutdown – November 30 12.00am PST
Hopefully these will all go off without a hitch. The final moments of many an MMO have been spoiled simply because so many people want to get involved that it often causes servers to crash or lag so much as to make the experience unplayable. The Matrix Online was perhaps one of the worst, seeing admin powers passed around to players that caused huge headaches and ultimately led to very few being able to experience the last few hours of the game's existence.
Are any of you guys City of Heroes players? If so do you have any plans for the last couple months of gameplay left to you?