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From 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.

Damn, I loved to play that game when I was younger. Sad news whats going on, really. Luckily, the guys who worked on it will do something new soon. Is the game going to be closed now, or will people still be able to play it?

That's the MMO that I've spent by far the most time on. Sad to see it go, but it really hasn't aged well. I hope they make a sequel, but it doesn't seem likely now.

And this is why I don't buy MMOs, or any other game where the only strong point is multiplayer...

TBH I'm actually rather fine with it being shut down. As I said, it is way past its prime and there are superhero games not hobbled by old game engines.

Damn, think I'm still subbing to CoX, going to have to go cancel it, no point continuing to pay if its going to be toast.

According to them, all subs are being canceled automatically

 Melissia wrote:
According to them, all subs are being canceled automatically

It would be kind of a dick move otherwise...

Yeah, that was more me removing my credit card from my account and just making sure as my next charge is due the first week of October.

After some of the issues I've seen with other MMO billing problems, I didn't want to take the chance. The fact my bank has let them take two payments from a card that expired last year is a little off, and I will be talking to them about it next week.

The response on then COX forums is to be expected, but yeah a lot of unhappy folks out there right now.

Damn, always sad to see a game go. Then again, it ran for quite a long time - not all online games can say that (RIP, Tabula Rasa), and many of its players will likely be able to find a new home in CO.

Would be a cool move if Cryptic would hire some of the CoH devs, actually, though that'd be a really optimistic thought.

 Lynata wrote:
Damn, always sad to see a game go. Then again, it ran for quite a long time - not all online games can say that (RIP, Tabula Rasa), and many of its players will likely be able to find a new home in CO.

Would be a cool move if Cryptic would hire some of the CoH devs, actually, though that'd be a really optimistic thought.

Doesn't Perfect World own Cryptic now?

But i reckon Cryptic could do with extra people now, with Neverwinter coming out early next year.

Ravenblade666 wrote:Doesn't Perfect World own Cryptic now?

Yeah, they had acquired them from Atari, the previous owner. I'm not sure how much leeway the studio has/had under both publishers when it comes to budget stuff, but I'd assume they would have to convince PW somehow. If Cryptic thinks they actually have work to assign to these people. Didn't think of Neverwinter, though, that might indeed create some open slots (unless they already have all the manpower they want and/or really want/have to get along with as small a budget as possible).

It outlived almost all of its competitors. Probably bankrolled NCSoft for quite a while when every new project they put out failed quickly.

I rather enjoyed it for the year that I played.