City of Heroes return likely as NCsoft files western trademark

Canceling City of Heroes was probably one of the most contested moves from NCsoft. The superhero MMORPG from Paragon Studios was terminated in November 2012, leading to many player complaints, petitions, and online gatherings. However, none of them were enough to make the Korean publisher revert its decision and see City of Heroes return.

Quite a few superhero projects originated from this situation. Oddly enough, eight years later, not one of them was commercially released. Valiance Online, Ship of Heroes, and City of Titans… not one of them has officially launched, and the hype seems to be dying for most, if not all of them.

Probably after a careful assessment of the situation and acknowledging the fact that NCsoft doesn't have much to offer its western fans besides Blade and Soul and Guild Wars 2, a City of Heroes return may be in the cards. According to MMOCulture, a new City of Heroes trademark was filed on December 4, 2019. It looks like it is aimed at the English market, namely North America, if the correspondent section is any indication.

Is this a new City of Heroes game or a revival of the classic MMORPG? Let's hope that it is at the very least an upgraded version running on Unreal Engine 4, similar to the Blade and Soul UE4 update. Until then, there are City of Heroes private servers that you can check if you're really into the superhero MMORPG.