At the beginning of 2024, City of Heroes celebrated a remarkable comeback, officially sanctioned by NCSoft. Now, the 20th anniversary of the superhero MMORPG is upcoming, with members of the original development team. Few other online role-playing games have such a turbulent 20-year history.
Why is City of Heroes back? The superhero adventure from NCSoft and Cryptic Studios was originally released in April 2004 (USA) and in February 2005. On December 1, 2012, it was discontinued and the servers went offline.
Similar to Warhammer Online and the original WoW, various private servers emerged over the years for City of Heroes as well. The operators of the popular Homecoming server received permission from the publisher in January 2024 to officially offer City of Heroes.
Initially launched as a subscription model, it switched to a Free2Play model in 2011 – here is the trailer:
Why are the operators celebrating the 20th anniversary? Despite the official discontinuation at the end of 2012, City of Heroes was never completely gone. In 2015, parts of the community provided a way to meet and chat in areas of the City of Heroes world with newly created characters through Paragon Chat (via Titan Network). However, the gameplay mechanics were missing.
In 2019, a YouTuber named Destroyer Stroyer revealed that there had been a functional private server named SCORE (Secret Cabal of Reverse Engineers) since 2013, which could be played secretly by a group of chosen ones (via PC Gamer).
While the revelation caused much anger in parts of the City of Heroes community, this SCORE server ultimately formed the foundation for the official comeback of the superhero MMORPG – noting that the Homecoming server has also been around for five years.
What made City of Heroes special can be found here:
Original developers honor the occasion
How will the anniversary be celebrated? Starting April 30, 2024, time capsules will appear throughout the game world of City of Heroes. Inside the containers, you’ll find a variety of gifts, including pets, anniversary tokens, temporary powers, and “some surprises from the past”.
Additionally, a Q&A session will take place in early May, with 19 members of the original development team participating. Finally, the operators will host a costume contest on May 19 and 26, where participants can earn unique badges and titles, as well as anniversary tokens.
All of this is made possible through the agreement with NCSoft. Other private servers of popular MMORPGs were not as fortunate: World of Warcraft: The Last Moments of “Nostalrius”
