In 2004 the MMORPG City of Heroes was released, which fulfilled the players’ dream of their own superhero. But what made City of Heroes so good and why did it ultimately fail?
What was that game? City of Heroes was a popular MMORPG, which was particularly convincing with its special character editor, its living world and the dream of your own superhero life.
On Metacritic, it got the top rating of 100 several times when it was released. The average score landed at a proud 85, which makes it one of the best MMORPGs according to Metacritic.
Despite the good reviews, many updates and expansions, and a very deep fanbase, the game was discontinued by publisher NCSoft in 2012. Several fan groups are still working on private servers today, making the MMORPG playable again.
Here you can watch another trailer:
City of Heroes – Trailer for the Free2Play change
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Superior character editor and a living game world
What made City of Heroes so good? As usual, you could create your own character in City of Heroes. But the character editor was an absolute dream for the time. Not only were there dozens of options and sliders for appearance, but you could also customize your superpowers, attributes, and costume.
There was also a window where you could write your backstory – an absolute dream for roleplayers.
The MMORPG also convinced with its game world, which felt very alive. In Paragon City, there were not only superheroes, but also normal people. And they had jobs, walked around or sometimes met in groups. So they weren’t rigid NPCs waiting in one place for you to accept their quest.
Quests were called missions in City of Heroes and could usually be completed on their own. However, there was always the possibility to start a mission as a team. The difficulty was then dynamically adjusted.
In addition, special events happened again and again in the game world. There were world events that suddenly appeared in which you had to defeat a strong enemy together with other superheroes, or you took part in patrols through the city. Traveling through the different areas was also implemented in style – with the metro train.
The many freedoms and the living world are also the aspects that many players miss today in the superhero MMORPG DC Universe Online. By the way, this has been revised significantly in 2021:
10 year old MMORPG gets a complete makeover – getting better for newcomers and Free2Play players
How did the development go? Shortly after the release, the developers added the first major updates. City of Villains was released on October 31, 2005. It was a standalone game that worked without purchasing City of Heroes.
Instead of a hero, you created a villain and could experience adventures with him on the Rogue Isles. Owning both games unlocked bonuses in each. In addition, the games were later linked so that heroes and villains could play together.
But even apart from this expansion, there was a lot of content for the MMORPG. The game received a total of 24 free “Major Updates”, including the “Destiny Manifest” patch, which brought a new level cap, new missions and a PvP zone in 2006.
In August 2010, the new expansion “Going Rogue” was also released. You had to pay extra for this. A kind of third faction was introduced here. The “Rogues” were neither good nor evil, but wandered somewhere in between.
By the way, you can watch the final moments of City of Heroes here:
Weak earnings and 3 new MMORPGs were the game’s undoing
Why did City of Heroes fail? Initially, the game was very successful. With 330,000 sales through August 2006, it was the 53rd best-selling computer game ever between January 2000 and August 2006 (via Edge Online).
Although the MMORPG had built up a considerable community and was constantly being expanded, the game did not refinance itself as well as hoped. In addition, the game could not prevail in the publisher’s home country – Korea. In 2011 the game switched to Free2Play, albeit with some limitations. For example, without a subscription, you were excluded from new content.
In the fourth quarter of 2011, City of Heroes brought the publisher just 3.4 billion won, which was around 2.2 million euros at the time. For comparison:
Overall, City of Heroes accounted for just under 3% of NCSoft’s revenue. 2011 was also the first year in which the company made a minus compared to the previous year.
That, and the fact that three new MMORPGs from NCSoft were in the starting blocks in 2012, was probably the undoing of City of Heroes. Guild Wars 2 was released in the West in 2012, Blade & Soul was released in Korea that same year, and WildStar was already in an advanced stage of development.
How did players react to the shutdown? They were shocked and tried everything to keep their MMORPG alive. They sent NCSoft cake to the office and collected over 21,000 signatures to get the studio to back down. But it didn’t help.
Meanwhile, several fan camps are working on a return of the game. City of Titans, for example, raised nearly $680,000 on Kickstarter to create a new version of the MMORPG. There is still work going on there. In November 2022, the developers announced that they would now switch to the Unreal Engine.
You can find out more about the games here: 3 new superhero MMORPGs are currently in development – where do they stand?.
What do you think of City of Heroes? Do you remember the MMORPG well? Do you wish for a full-fledged return?