Didn't (But should have) see this one coming...

NCsoft announced today that they've bought City of Heroes and Villains from Cryptic Studios, in a move beneficial to both parties no doubt, as Cryptic's got enough on their plate with the Marvel Universe game to be developed.

Here's the email announcement...

To all current and former City of Heroes players,

Today we announced the acquisition of City of Heroes from Cryptic Studios™ and the formation of our new Northern California studio which we are informally calling NCsoft® NorCal (click here to read the press release). Nearly the entire City of Heroes team from Cryptic Studios has joined the NCsoft team and together we have formed the core of our new studio.

The City of Heroes franchise has been a tremendous success for both NCsoft and Cryptic. More than three years after the City of Heroes launch, our community is strong and thriving. There are so many great ideas and plans, both from our development team and from the players, and we can’t wait to make them a reality. Our team is 100% dedicated to City of Heroes and we are extremely excited about the present and the future!

Click here to read the Dev Corner chat with General Manager Brian Clayton and learn more details.



Now back to you, the players. You are the lifeblood of our game. In celebration of our new studio and our exciting plans, and in order to thank you for the fantastic community that you have built, we are pleased to announce the following.

Full Access to City of Heroes and City of Villains®
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!

Debt Wipe
After the launch of Issue 11: A Stitch in Time this Fall, we are removing Debt from all characters and giving you a fresh start. Actual date will be announced shortly. Have fun in the mean time.

20,000 Prestige
Also after the launch of Issue 11, all Supergroups will receive an additional 20,000 Prestige per Supergroup member, meaning SGs could acquire up to 3 million Prestige based upon their Supergroup membership roster! Actual date will be announced shortly.

In the near future we will begin to share more information about our development plans. With this major reinvestment and effort ahead of us, we will take City of Heroes to new heights!

Sincerely,

The City of Heroes Team

The good part for NCsoft is that all revenue from the game for as long as it remains will go to them, they just have to keep people playing it... which is part of the bad news. Many, MANY players will likely jump ship to Marvel Universe when it comes out if it's anywhere near as fun as CoX (which I'm betting it will be and then some). I'm sure NCsoft will squeeze every last dime out of it though, in a good way. Say what you will about NCsoft's games, at least they strive to help unique ideas thrive.

And obviously this is the bitter kind of good news for Cryptic. They're now able to fully focus on Marvel Universe (MUni as I'm calling it), but they also just let go of their baby. Let it go off to college, or more so go off into the real world a fully grown adult, and now all they can do is offer advice it won't listen to and spend countless Sundays hoping it calls them, just to say "Hi."

Cheers to both parties.

The times they are a'changin.