AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 6, 2007—NCsoft® Corp, the world’s leading developer and publisher of online computer games, today announced the formation of a new development studio in Mountain View, California. The announcement comes as the company begins a renewed push to further develop the City of Heroes® property, which is now 100 percent owned by NCsoft. Previous to today, ownership of the intellectual property (IP) was split between NCsoft and Cryptic Studios, the original developer of the project.
The new studio will be built around key members of the City of Heroes team from NCsoft and Cryptic Studios including the art, programming and design team leads.
“We’re happy to announce that NCsoft has acquired full ownership of the City of Heroes IP,” said Brian Clayton, NCsoft executive producer and manager of the new studio. “Our plans are clear. We are now in a position to make a major reinvestment in the City of Heroes product line. With our existing Cryptic and NCsoft team as the core, we will be able to run our current service without any interruption to our players, expand our studio to deliver triple-A content, and take City of Heroes to new heights.”
NCsoft will soon be announcing formal plans for the City of Heroes IP, which will include expansions and sequels to the popular comic-book inspired massively multiplayer online (MMO) game.
Matt Miller, Lead Designer on the City of Heroes project and formerly with Cryptic Studios said, “We’re thrilled to be bringing the CoH franchise to the next level. And we couldn’t be more pleased to be working completely under the NCsoft banner. We feel that City of Heroes’ best days are in front of it.”
I believe that both CoH and CoV have had 2 years to be Marketed as separate, being that the two are the same "Program". I think that most people who purchased CoV did so some time ago and have got their money's worth or bought the "Good VS Evil Edition", if it was recently, which was worth every penny.
Well, all I can say is ya beat me to the punch. But another source from IGN:
QUOTE
Cryptic Sells Heroes and Villains to NCsoft
The publisher has big plans for the series, and Cryptic is now free to pursue other projects.
by Ryan Geddes November 6, 2007 - Cryptic Studios, developer of the City of Heroes and City of Villains massively-multiplayer online role-playing games, has sold its rights to those properties to NCsoft, the games' publisher.
NCsoft, which also publishes the Tabula Rasa and Lineage II MMOs, said it plans to continue to the online superhero series with "expansions and sequels."
The company has formed a new studio around the acquisition in Mountain View, Calif., which will include key members of the City of Heroes development teams.
"We're happy to announce that NCsoft has acquired full ownership of the City of Heroes IP," said Brian Clayton, NCsoft executive producer and manager of the new studio. "Our plans are clear. We are now in a position to make a major reinvestment in the City of Heroes product line. With our existing Cryptic and NCsoft team as the core, we will be able to run our current service without any interruption to our players, expand our studio to deliver triple-A content, and take City of Heroes to new heights."
Michael Lewis, president and co-founder of Cryptic, said the sale will allow the developer to focus on original games, the details of which have yet to be announced. The company has revealed some concept art on its web site, but it's unclear whether the images are all related to the same project.
So they gonna focus on CoX more now! I think this will be great, as it will expand CoX a ton more, and possibley bring people back to CoX! I can say as a true CoX fan, I am looking forward to this!
City of Heroes Burnt Scar 50 Fire/Devices/Fire blaster - Triumph
Goblino 33 Broadsword/Willpower Scrapper - Triumph
City of Villains Mech Beta 50 Robotics/FF Mastermind - Triumph
Demon Juggernaut 20 Energy/Invul Brute - Virtue
Brawl: R.O.B!
**Post ends here**
With this happening i want a group game pass...i want to have one price to have access to all the nc soft games...purely optional of course...but with exteel and dungeon runners and tabula rasa(which is awesome by the way) I want access without having to shell out 15 a pop.
On Protector:
Shockingmadness 28 elect/eng blaster
Boston black 43 katana/SR scrapper
Devilish heart 21 fire/dev blaster
Empire Soldier 22 emp/eng defender
Psychic Machine 14 mindC/shields controller
Sgt. Scream 22 sonic/dev blaster
Mrs. Yuck 21 spines/regen scrapper
Grey Stone 16 Stone/stone tank
General Watt 15 Elect/elect brute
Doctor Gears 16 Robot/bubble MM
On Triumph:
Officer Patch 22 archery/eng blaster
On Justice:
Undead Don 26 necro/darkmis mastermind
Agent Boston Black 18 katana/ninja stalker
And many many many more....god i have a problem. =)
I am really excited about the prestige bonus for supergroups. My solo supergroup, could really use some additional prestige. Right before Issue 11 comes out I will start a trial account and create 12 toons for the group to get the extra prestige bonus for them. That might help me get the energy source for the base instead of the laptop small power source.
I don't have enough power to run 2 teleporters with the other stuff in the base. I need the bigger power source, but it will be around 4 to 5 hundred thousand to get it.
That is a little more then I have currently.
Also, it will be nice to have all debt reset back to zero (although none of my toons are that far in debt). Does that extend to the players as well?
I would love to have all my debt wiped clean and be able to start fresh again.
Swiss, if you need some filler toons for your SG so you can make even more cash, let me know. I've got two accounts and pretty much only play on Triumph.
Path of Wrath - Storm/Elec/Elec Defender - 50
Miss Trinidad - Ill/Storm/Ice Controller - 50
Miss Cote d'Ivoire - Dark/Regen/Dark Scrapper - 50
Posey Punk - Grav/Kin/Stone Controller - 50
Mr. Azerbaijan - Kin/Psy Defender - 40
Laccolith - Earth/Rad Controller - 30
Geriatric Justice - Willpower/SS Tanker - 21
If you would like to join till after issue 11 comes out I certainly wouldn't say no. I am on the victory server with the Swiss Army Corp.
Cougro and Lord X both have a toon on there, but Lord X's account for that toon is inactive.
All the more prestige the more power the base can have. Thanks for the offer. If you have some on victory I can invite them as I see you on. I have mainly been playing on that server to work on the supergroup and my level 40 scrapper.
Watch it Path. you might get others to start asking. Like me! lol I have several heavily used servers with small SGs that i am trying to get as many as I can.
Guardian Avant Guard = Emp/Rad/Psychic Defender Lvl 50 (Dedicated Healer)
Astral Plane = Peacebringer Lvl 50
Spica = Fire/Em/Energy Tank Lvl 50 (Scranker)
Beliskner = Eng/Eng Blaster Lvl 40
Avant Spines = Spines/Regen Scrapper Lvl 39 (AOE King)
Avant Kin = Ill/Kin Controller Lvl 35
BMG = AR/Dev Blaster Lvl 27
Avant Psy = Psychic Blast/Empathy Defender Lvl 20 (Offender)
Avant Def = Kinetics/Energy Blast Defender Lvl 16
Avant Stone = Stone/Storm Controller lvl 15 (Super Controller)
Umbral Plane = Warshade Lvl 14
Triumph Lord Yu = MA/Regen Scrapper Lvl 24
Avant Psy = Rad/Psy Defender Lvl 14 (Offender)
Lord Starwolf = Sonic/Electrical Blaster Lvl 14 (Blapper)
Protector T-99 = Ice/Ice Tanker Lvl 20
Electrostun = Electric/EM Blaster Lvl 21 (Sapper)
Starwolf = Katana/Inv Scrapper Lvl 18 (my very first toon, 3 years ago)
Avant Sonic = Sonic/Sonic Defender Lvl 14
Pinnacle Avant Claws = Claws/Regen Scrapper Lvl 18 (Non-power pool toon)
Champion Avant Dragon = Fire/Fire Blaster Lvl 20
Liberty Quarentine- Arc/ElcMnp Blaster-lvl 24-GhostAxe
Cosmic-Man- Ener/Ener Blas-lvl 6- Sands of Mu
Victory Mr. Hungary- lvl 4 Invln/SStrength Tanker-GhostAxe
The "other side" has always been there. CoH and CoV use the same clientside software. The only thing different is that your account is flagged for CoH, CoV or Both. This is just going to flag all accounts for both.
Meaning if you just have CoH, you'll be able to access CoV also. If you just have CoV, you'll be able to access CoH also.
***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***
City of Heroes/Villains Onion - L50 - Katana/Super Reflexes/Body Mastery Scrapper Scotch Bonnet Girl - L50 - Fire Aura/Fire Melee/Pyre Mastery Tanker Aurora Australis - L41 - Willpower/Energy Melee Tanker
I was searching some info on the main boards today and found something I didn't realize...
Statesman is not moving with the group and staying with City of Heroes... He is stay to work on Marvel online.
Apparently, he put Positron in as the lead designer about a year ago and has been focusing on getting Marvel Online up and running.
There was some discussion on what to do with the Statesman character in the game. I don't believe you can get rid of the Statesman character, the game is built around him. But I would not want to see him taken over by someone other than Jack. Just don't make and live Statesman appearances and I think we are good.
I don't think his leaving changes much at this point. I believe the design team had a similiar focus as Jack did and I believe that the game won't suffer at all because of this.
The only worry I might see now is that Jack and the Marvel crew are now competitors with CoX instead of teammates.
Just thought I'd add some more timeline to this to flesh things out a bit.
Jack Emmert is a co-founder of Cryptic Studios.
In 2004, Marvel sued Cryptic and NCsoft over City of Heroes' ability to create trademarked Marvel characters using it's character creation software. In December of 2005, it was announced that Marvel had settled suits with both defendants, and that no changes would need to be made to the CoH software.
I can't find a specific date, but sometime in late 2005 or early 2006 (I think it was around the release of CoV) it was announced that Jack Emmert would be relinquishing his Lead Designer duties to Matt "Positron" Miller, so that Jack could focus on the 'big picture'. This announcement was widely heralded as positive, as certain factions within the community felt that Jack still viewed CoH as 'his' game, while Matt was much more receptive to the community.
In September of 2006 it was released that the Marvel settlement not only preserved the integrity of CoH, but that Cryptic had reached and agreement with Marvel to develop their unnamed Marvel Online game. No mention of NCsoft was made in conjunction with Marvel Online.
So, by putting the timeline out there, you can see this:
2004- Marvel sues Cryptic and NCsoft
12/05- Marvel settles with Cryptic and NCsoft
late '05/early '06- Jack Emmert hands his development duties to Matt Miller
9/06- Cryptic/Marvel collaboration on Marvel Online disclosed
11/07- NCsoft announces buyout of Cryptic on CoH's Intellectual Property, as well as employment contracts of Matt Miller and several other key designers. NCsoft does not buy services of original CoH Lead Designer Jack Emmert (as he co-founded Cryptic).
Hindsight being 20/20, this isn't a surprise. Jack was probably upset that the playerbase didn't share his vision for 'his' IP. When Marvel sued, he went into negotiations and said, "I'm done with CoH. Why don't I develop Marvel Online for you". Since it wasn't his IP, he wouldn't be as attached to it. Marvel agreed on the condition that Cryptic not have anything to do with CoH. That allowed NCsoft to buy them out and replace Jack with Matt, who seemed to be more in touch with the player community.
As Far as familiar controls/layout, I, also being old, agree. I totally reworked the keymapping to play LOTRO to make it as CoXish as possible so I wouldnt be stumbling and fumbling around like a NOOB.
Good summary, Miss M. Exactly what I was seeing when I read the initial post. I hope they can keep the game fresh and growing as we have a great player base. The concept, for me of the 2 sides of CoX being separate, was slightly contrary to community growth and things should pickup momentum now that it's one big happy community.
Does this Signal that perhaps it's time to combine the CoH and CoV Gameamp Forums? Lotta crossover people coming down the pipeline.
I hope this brings about exciting development for CoH/V. I have been very sad that my favorite game is stagnant...least in my opinion. While other MMOs expand and create further play for your main character, CoH/V almost pushes you toward alt-ism. I never liked alt-ism and want to be able to get some long running wear/tear out of my main.
Im not looking for the copycat versions WoW/EQ2 but I level my main to 50 I want to do something with him still. The new character option of Kheldians was very cool but not much of a character type I could get behind.
With this new split, and creation I hope to see the CoH/V world expanded and bring about some renewed interests. If they do it right, they could definitely bring back long lost players such as myself for another long run with a great game. Even enough to keep MUO just a footnote in the MMO world. Im looking forward to the future and want to see some the revitalization of CoH/V. Come on NcSoft, make me pay you more money to play.
Which means what exactly, more content, bigger servers, more powers, more issues more frequently, what...?
I hope that tone isnt direct at me...but if it is...toward me....
I indicated what I meant with more utilization, more play ability with my main character. How many people have maxed to 50 but that character gets very little use. Maybe PVP here, maybe to go back and earn recipes or help a low level friend but other than that, nothing for them.
Also, Rey, make sure you give a better indication to who you directed your question too. I assume it was myself but also it just seems to be an out there statement.
My guess is that it was a general "what's it mean" question.
In my opinion, it means that neither company needs to get the other's approval to make changes/updates/improvements. What that should mean is more content getting updated more quickly...one would hope.
City of Heroes/Villains Onion - L50 - Katana/Super Reflexes/Body Mastery Scrapper Scotch Bonnet Girl - L50 - Fire Aura/Fire Melee/Pyre Mastery Tanker Aurora Australis - L41 - Willpower/Energy Melee Tanker
I'm old and don't learn as well as I used to. I want the controls to be the same. :)
I second that.
I resemble those remarks.
"The most skillful sword never leaves it's sheath" - Japanese Proverb
No matter how powerful and mighty you are, a bullet between the eyes will seriously screw up your day.
YIM: tarient
11/11/07 21:49
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