Superheroes are popular in movies. Avengers: Endgame even broke records in 2019 and became the highest-grossing movie of all time. However, this genre is struggling particularly in the MMO sector. Aside from Marvel’s Avengers, there are currently 3 new games in development.
Which MMORPGs are in development? Currently, there are three very different games in development. None of them use a license from Marvel or DC.
All of them share the desire to be a true superhero with special abilities. They are inspired by City of Heroes, a superhero MMORPG from Cryptic Studios that was discontinued in 2012. They are called:
- City of Titans
- Ship of Heroes
- and Valiance Online
In this article, we will examine how far along these three games are and what their focus is. However, if you want to get a taste of being a superhero right now, you can check out the MMO DC Universe, which was released for the Switch in August 2019 as well.
For those who absolutely want to use a game from the Marvel franchise, they can look forward to Marvel’s Avengers, which is currently in beta. Although it is not a traditional MMORPG, it is still enjoyable to play in multiplayer.
City of Titans – A game made by fans
What is City of Titans? City of Titans is heavily inspired by City of Heroes and was initiated by fans of the old game. Therefore, this MMORPG focuses on the community aspect. It is developed using Unreal Engine 4 but is still aimed to visually resemble City of Heroes.
In City of Titans, you take on the role of a superhero. With this character, you should:
- Stand up for justice, freedom, and honor.
- Fight evil even in the darkest times.
- Learn a superpower and improve it over time with secondary strengths.
The game is set in a vast city, Titan City, where many criminal organizations and villains exist. In your missions, you should make your own decisions and achieve your own results.
Who is developing it? The company behind City of Titans is Missing Worlds Media. This is a studio founded by fans of City of Heroes.
They launched a Kickstarter campaign for support and raised a whopping $678,189 in 33 days in 2013. Since then, the game has been in development, although there is currently no fully playable version available.
What is the current status of the game? On September 27, 2019, the developers published a post regarding the Alpha and Beta of City of Titans. They emphasized that individual sections of the game are already being tested in Alpha or Beta.
One of these contents is the new character editor, which you can view in the video above the previous paragraph. This has been available as a standalone program for selected supporters since October 24, 2019, and can be downloaded and tried out.
What does the future look like? Actually, Issue 0 was supposed to be released by the end of 2018. This update was meant to:
- The character editor
- A game world with over 173 named NPCs, 107 small and 5 large story chapters, and a significant event
- and initial playable content and combat systems.
Even a year later, this goal has not yet been reached. However, the developers have become more active in their communication and report on their progress. This year, there have already been blog posts about rewards, an update to the city, and a larger patch with many new cosmetics in July.
You can find current posts on the corresponding homepage. There, they have also launched a second-chance program to support the MMORPG again.
