NC Soft takes City of Heroes/Villains games in house

by: Chuck - posted: 11/6/2007 4:33:00 PM

Cyrptic announced today that they have sold the rights to the City of Heroes/City of Villains games to NC Soft (the publisher of the games).  In conjunction with this announcement NC Soft revealed that they have formed a new studio to support the games.  This looks to be something of a win-win as it allows NC Soft to focus on "to be announced first-party projects" and it allows NC Soft to keep the ball rolling with one of their premiere products.  It will be interesting to see how the development schedule of the upcoming episodes and patches for the games.  Hopefully users won't notice anything different in the transition.

CRYPTIC STUDIOS™ ANNOUNCES SALE OF CITY OF HEROES® & CITY OF VILLAINS®

Los Gatos, Calif. - November 6, 2007 – Cryptic Studios™ announced today that the development house has sold its intellectual and proprietary rights to both the City of Heroes® and City of Villains® franchises to publisher NCsoft. As part of the agreement, NCsoft is licensing Cryptic’s engine technologies for use with future games.

“City of Heroes and City of Villains players should be assured that Cryptic Studios will be working closely with NCsoft to ensure a smooth, seamless transition,” said Michael Lewis, President and co-founder of Cryptic Studios. “City of Heroes was Cryptic’s flagship product and we are proud of this title and the many millions of characters that have entertained over a million people worldwide. The decision to sell the franchise allows us to focus resources on our soon to be announced first-party projects.”