City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Discussion: NCsoft Acquires City of Heroes!

AaronH

By AaronH,
Posted on: 2007-11-06 13:55 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion

 

Posted

We keep everybody but States, lose competing interests in MUO, and get more money and focus on the CoX?

Wheeeeeeee!!!!!!

 

Posted

Think of it this way...

All the things that the Devs have made mention of ..They wish they could do this or they wish they could do that....Will most likely start happening..


We are no longer subject to States "Vision" of the game..

NC Soft is global where as Cryptic is regional...They will be looking to invest much more money into the game...More marketing etc etc etc...

All those things that we asked ourselves ..Why wont the Devs do this or that ...and the answer was..They didnt want to spend the time or money....Stand a better chance of getting done...

 

Posted

Just went to cryptics website....ill copy and paste this tidbit

"Cryptic Studios™ announced today that the development house has sold its intellectual and proprietary rights to both the City of Heroes® and City of Villains® franchises to publisher NCsoft. As part of the agreement, NCsoft is licensing Cryptic's engine technologies for use with future games.

"City of Heroes and City of Villains players should be assured that Cryptic Studios will be working closely with NCsoft to ensure a smooth, seamless transition," said Michael Lewis, president and co-founder of Cryptic Studios. "City of Heroes was Cryptic's flagship product and we are proud of this title and the many millions of characters that have entertained over a million people worldwide. The decision to sell the franchise allows us to focus resources on our soon to be announced first-party projects."

 

Posted

edited for being to angsty

What about Castle, BAB, GW, Pyshb and such?

 

Posted

I am worried becuz I have no idea if this is a good thing or bad thing.

Someone please explain the good and bad of this??

 

Posted

This... is very...

Well I don't know what to make of it honestly.

I'm nervous though, I admit that - every time in my past when an MMO has 'switched hands'; things have gone Topsy-turvy. BUT it sounds like we're keeping a fair chunk of the original dev team - and those are good folks, so I'm not worried about that...

I do however have to hope that NCsoft doesn't decide that they need to make major changes to CoH - its a good game *now* - it can be better yes; but I fear the possibility of "WoWitization".

Ultra-Rare enhancers? I can live with.

But if I ever once - ONCE - smell "raid"; I quit. End of discussion.

That said; I don't think we're necessarily headed that way, and I'm not crying doom; merely making my position clear insofar as that goes.

So I guess we just see where we go from here.

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Posted

Whazzawhowhatnow?!

What are THIS?!!

Before embracing our new overlords with a smile on my face and a cookie in my pocket, I'm going to wait and see how this turns out.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
All players with City of Heroes retail* accounts will now have access to City of Villains, and all City of Villains retail* accounts will now have access to City of Heroes. Players that didn't previously have access to "the other side" will find that they do now. Just log in to check it out!

[/ QUOTE ]

So I just bought both versions of the game...does this mean that I wasted my money and if I had waited a week, I could have paid half as much?

Fabulous!

 

Posted

Well I am a bit shocked (as everyone else is I'm sure) and I don't know the long-range aspects of this change but I can see this as being good (potentially bad too).

Two things that 'jump out' at me are as follows:

1.) Why did NcSoft buy the Co* franchises? I mean...was it to get rid of Jack/Statesman/Cryptic so that they could do their own thing and if so, why take Positron/and other devs unless it is a timed thing where after x months Posi/other devs go away and get replaced by "NcSoft" peeps?

2.) I do like the bonuses for Issue 11 but I guess I'm a bit bothered (not the right word) for the whole CoH people getting CoV access and vice-versa. Will there be any refund to the people who got both because we were told that if we wanted base access/other things we needed to buy both?

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Posted

Jack is all about Marvel and Microsoft now is my understanding. Cryptic is his baby.

 

Posted

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Can we get a Dev list of who's around and who stayed with Cryptic?

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Jack Emmert remains in his position as Creative Director of Cryptic Studios, that he has been doing back since he transitioned off the day-to day CoH team and Positron took over as the Lead Designer.

As was mentioned by Brian Clayton in his Dev Corner, the previous Cryptic Team Leads all join us, consisting of:

Matt “Positron” Miller (lead designer)
Aaron Brady (lead engineer)
Ken Morse (lead artist)

With one exception, everyone who was presented with an offer to stay on the City of Heroes team under the NCsoft banner has accepted and is looking forward to working hard on the future of the franchise! While this includes a good number of people, it also includes many of the familiar “red names” from the forums, such as: Melissa “War Witch” Bianco, Floyd “_Castle_” Grubb, Back Alley Brawler, Ghost Widow and “Sexy” Jay Doherty.

Lighthouse
Community Relations Manager

If you have a specific in game, account, tech or billing problem please contact our Customer Support team via The Knowledge Base "Ask A Question" page.

 

Posted

OMG! OMG! OMG!

*SQUEEEEEEEEEE*

I'm floored.
I'm breathless.
And I'm excited as hell!

What else can I say?

OMG!!!! And almost everybody's staying on w/ NCSoft?!! WOOHOO!! THANK YOU FOR STAYING WITH US!!!

OH MY G..A..W..D...!!!

*calls Fred, Ethel with the news and then Mrs. Trumble to come over and watch the baby!*

 

Posted

I've seen this movie. The ending sucks.

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Posted

[ QUOTE ]
2.) I do like the bonuses for Issue 11 but I guess I'm a bit bothered (not the right word) for the whole CoH people getting CoV access and vice-versa. Will there be any refund to the people who got both because we were told that if we wanted base access/other things we needed to buy both?



[/ QUOTE ]



All the more reason to be happy about the change...That decision was made by Cryptic not NC Soft...It was all about more money for Cryptic..

While I can understand the disgruntled'ness...at having wasted money...If you did invest in CoV for Base Access you ahead of the game in prestige and Base knowledge than those who will be just starting...try to look at the bright side and realize it wasnt NC Soft who made that call..

 

Posted

FAQ Sheet from Cryptic

"FAQ about the City of Heroes and City of Villains sale
What you need to know about the sale of City of Heroes and City of Villains and the future of Cryptic Studios.

How did Cryptic Studios arrive at the decision to sell City of Heroes and City of Villains to NCsoft?

When we considered the future of CoH/CoV and the future of Cryptic Studios, we had a difficult decision to make. We've invested a lot of time, effort, talent and passion into the games, and we care about them. But we've got a lot of other ideas we're excited about too.

Ultimately, we decided that selling to NCsoft was the best and right thing to do for the CoH community. CoH/CoV will be in good hands at NCsoft, and the transition will be as seamless as possible. With this move, we now have complete creative freedom and the resources we need to develop new games.

How will Cryptic be involved with CoH in the future?

Cryptic will work closely with the team at NCsoft to create a smooth transition and gameplay will not be affected. At the end of the transition all ongoing activities will be managed by NCsoft.

What will happen to my City of Heroes account?

You should see no change at all to your CoH account. Future service will be completely under NCsoft's umbrella and customers should contact them for product support and service by phone.

You can contact NCsoft at the NCsoft support center, or by phone at (512) 225-6359 (billing and technical support issues only).

Who will be responsible for future development on City of Heroes and City of Villains?

CoH/CoV has a great live team that has set a high standard for development and updates, and NCsoft would like all of them to continue working on the project. Every member of the team has been offered employment at NCsoft. The future is in the same hands that led the game to where it is today.

Cryptic would not have entered into this agreement without ensuring the well-being of the CoH/CoV team. It will be hard to lose part of the Cryptic family, but with NCsoft's support the team will continue to add loads of new content and features to CoH/CoV.

What's next for Cryptic Studios

Cryptic is developing new titles and new IPs, as well as expanding its business interests. We have a talented team of game developers and technicians, and a large part of our motivatation for this move was to free up resources for our future projects. With these new projects we will challenge ourselves to make even better and more immersive MMO games. Stay tuned!"

 

Posted

<QR>

Well at least this will be bring all the "COH is being neglected while Cryptic focuses on MUO" posts to a crashing halt.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
With one exception, everyone who was presented with an offer to stay on the City of Heroes team under the NCsoft banner has accepted and is looking forward to working hard on the future of the franchise! While this includes a good number of people, it also includes many of the familiar “red names” from the forums, such as: Melissa “War Witch” Bianco, Floyd “_Castle_” Grubb, Back Alley Brawler, Ghost Widow and “Sexy” Jay Doherty.



[/ QUOTE ]



Thanks guys!!

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
I am worried becuz I have no idea if this is a good thing or bad thing.

Someone please explain the good and bad of this??

[/ QUOTE ]


It's good. NC, more then likely, has more money to throw at the game then criptic did... also, Criptic was busy making a new games, the marvel MMO inperticular, and thus, CoX was not it's focus, where as this new game studio seems to be sololy focused on CoX... And we keep most of the dev's we've come to know and love... along with getting new ones more then likely...

It's pretty much all pluses.

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Posted

Oh and since there is "new" management, can we have more character slots per server please?!

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Posted

I think they pretty well covered who's who...but just in case there is still any confusion

Who's Who

 

Posted

(QR)
I honestly don't know how to feel about all this.

Is it cool? Yeah. We're gonna get a full company devoted to just us. While I understand Cryptic always did have a staff for just us, now those who doubted otherwise will have to stop the rumor-mongering.

But what about the Devs? I see we'll still be keeping Positron on board as the head of this new division, but what about the others?

_Castle_?
BackAlleyBrawler?
JLove?
War Witch?

Ravenstorm?

Over the last years (and the last months even more so), I've come to enjoy seeing, talking with, and even just reading what the Devs here write. Is this goodbye to many of them?


EDIT: Whew! Thanks for the listings, Lighthouse! I was beginning to get worried there.

YAY! We get to keep our Devs!

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Posted

I bought mine the day it came out. I couldn't wait. I paid full price, got all the bells and whistles. I've enjoyed DG Bases and villainous activity ever since!

If I had waited for the GvE version, I would have saved some money... but I didn't want to wait.

You still get all the bonuses that came with GvE, as well as getting it much cheaper than I did...

Hopefully, there will be some kind of added thank you to everyone who paid for the full versions of the game... but if not, it was worth it to me to have it now, instead of waiting for what was maybe never coming.


[ QUOTE ]
But what about the Devs? I see we'll still be keeping Positron on board as the head of this new division, but what about the others?

[/ QUOTE ]
Everybody but Statesman stays!

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
<QR>

Well at least this will be bring all the "COH is being neglected while Cryptic focuses on MUO" posts to a crashing halt.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Reuters - Nov 8, 2007 - NCSoft NorCal, a leading provider in MMO entertainment, announces its most enterprising online franchise yet: Infinite Earths - DC Universe Online!

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(The above was typed in a deadpan tone.)