GamesAfter 5 years, NCSoft officially grants a licence to popular City of Heroes private server Homecoming: ‘Your accounts and characters are safe’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesAfter 5 years, NCSoft officially grants a licence to popular City of Heroes private server Homecoming: ‘Your accounts and characters are safe’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: NCSOFT)

If you were like me, the shutdown of the GOAT superhero MMORPGCity of Heroesbroke your heart into itty-bitty pieces—it also probably made you happy to see people playing it again when it was revealed that the game code had been salvaged in 2019.
Homecoming—alongside a bunch of other servers—promised a return to the good ol’ days. I personally had a great time for a couple of years, diving deep into its still-active roleplay community, I even made friends who’re still playing it. Still, there’s always this looming,Nostralius-style dread that comes with playing on a private server. When will the corpos muscle in and shut down the party?
Meanwhile, thefull announcement and FAQgoes into further detail. “Homecoming has been granted a licence to operate a City of Heroes™ server and further develop the game—subject to conditions and limitations under the contract.” The developers expect required funding to increase, but—speaking from personal experience—the monthly donation goals that keep the server running are filled in days, if not hours. People really love this game.
Thisdoesmean that the game is still subject to shutdown, but NCSoft was technically in their rights to call curtains beforehand anyway. Surprisingly, it seems that was never that likely to begin with: “We’ve had a really positive and productive relationship with NCsoft for over four years now, so we do not anticipate there being any issues.”
(Image credit: NCSoft / Homecoming)

At present, the atmosphere in the discord server is electric—“Holy shits” in bulk, and it’s easy to see why. The sudden shutdown of City of Heroes is a scar that still lingers in the minds of its players, with fleets of players holding in-game protests and petitioning NCSoft en masse to no avail.
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While the return of private servers was a victory, it felt almost pyrrhic, living under the boot of the gods that struck down the game in the first place. Said boot could still legally smush the anthill, but to hear that Homecoming’s had a good enough working relationship with the company to gain an official licence is a huge relief.
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