After the official servers of the MMORPG City of Heroes were shut down in 2012, many fans started their own private servers to continue playing the game. After five years full of updates and events, the official developers finally approached the operators in 2024.
Why was City of Heroes shut down? The MMORPG City of Heroes was released in 2004 and allowed players to defend a city from villains as superheroes. The game was particularly appreciated for its extensive character editor, vibrant game world, and the opportunity to step into the role of a superhero. It is considered one of the best MMORPGs on Metacritic.
Despite its popularity, the game was shut down in December 2012. The operator NCSoft justified this with declining revenues, making the continued operation of the servers no longer profitable. Additionally, three other MMORPGs from the company were already on the horizon.
Here you can watch a trailer for City of Heroes:
5 years illegal, now completely legal
How did fans react to the shutdown? Over the years, fans started various private servers – without permission from NCSoft. They operated these in a legal grey area for a long time. They even created new content and patches, thus independently advancing development.
However, since they were operating without permission, the rights holders at NCSoft had the opportunity to sue the operators of the private servers at any time, thereby enforcing a shutdown. After years of uncertainty, NCSoft surprisingly decided in January 2024 to grant an official license to one of the largest private servers.
What kind of server is this? The “City of Heroes” private server “Homecoming” was illegally developed for over 5 years between 2019 and 2024, always with the fear that the developers could demand a shutdown at any time. Even before the licensing, the server developed into one of the most advanced and received many new patches and events.
Back then, the number of registered players grew to over 100,000, which likely also sparked interest from NCSoft. As the original developers and rights holders, they did not want to take away the fun from the fans, but rather granted the developers of “Homecoming” an official license to operate and further develop the MMORPG (via homecomingservers.com).
Even after the licensing in 2024, there remained the possibility that NCSoft could pull the plug, but for the developers, this felt like a knightly honor that very few private servers would ever receive.
After the developers had worked in fear for five years that it could all end at any moment, they could finally breathe a sigh of relief after the licensing in 2024. Another MMORPG classic is getting new servers in 2025, but they are not private: MMORPG to Lord of the Rings is getting modern 64-bit servers for everyone – what you need to know about the transfer
