Wait, so does Cryptic still own -some- of the CoH code?

[Lightslinger]

Looking for some clarification on how the ownership of CoH, the game engine, code, etc, are all currently owned.

On November 6, 2007 NCsoft announced it had assumed ownership of CoH. Wasn't the game engine licensed to NCsoft "at liberty" (paraphrased I think) from Cryptic?

So, follow me if that's possible; NCsoft still has the CoH IP in their basement well, but what about that pre-November 6, 2007 engine, isn't that Cryptic's?

I say pre-November 6, 2007 because any changes made to the engine after that date would be owned by NCsoft (right?). My idea; can Cryptic license that pre-11-6-2007 to anyone else now?

I can imagine that our coders working on reverse engineering the server would be ecstatic to have a fully functional Issue 10: Invasion codebase. Or maybe one of the Plan Z projects could use that to build the spiritual successor. To avoid copyright issues we could get that Issue 10 engine and go crazy on reskinning, changing zone names, basically reskin/ redo text until we have a spiritual successor to CoH running on the very same engine.

Hell, I know if I could get a working copy of CoH: Issue 10 going I'd be ecstatic. Sure, I want Issue 24 and further development but anything's better than nothing.

Note: I keep saying Cryptic just for clarity, it's actually Perfect World Entertainment now...I think?

[Mysterious J]

They almost certainly have a contract with NCSoft forbidding them doing exactly that, and that wouldn't be void just because NCSoft no longer runs the game.

[Ironwolf]

Cryptic said outright that they have nothing to do with City of Heroes now.

They wouldn't dare release the code as a larger company they would certainly be sued. If we as individuals reverse engineer something but keep it on the lowdown - it may draw a C&D letter but with nothing to gain for a lawsuit it would not likely be serious.

[Noyjitat]

No, when ncsoft bought cox they bought the entire rights to it. I think positron clarified this recently.

[Lightslinger]

Ok, well that's good to know anyhow, last I'd heard there was some rumors about that Cryptic had been licensing the engine to NCsoft.

[Lily Barclay]

Note: I keep saying Cryptic just for clarity, it's actually Perfect World Entertainment now...I think?

It's still Cryptic like Paragon was Paragon when owned by NCSoft. PWE is just the publisher.

[Lily Barclay]

Ok, well that's good to know anyhow, last I'd heard there was some rumors about that Cryptic had been licensing the engine to NCsoft.

I believe those were debunked.

[srmalloy]

I believe those were debunked.

IIRC, Positron said that Cryptic had granted Paragon Studios (and, thereby, NCSoft) license in perpetuity without fee to use their game engine for City of Heroes and for one other game to be named later.

[TonyV]

IIRC, Positron said that Cryptic had granted Paragon Studios (and, thereby, NCSoft) license in perpetuity without fee to use their game engine for City of Heroes and for one other game to be named later.

This is my understanding as well.  Technically, Cryptic still "owns" the engine code, in that if they really wanted to, they could license it out to other companies or use it to write more games.  However, NCsoft has a perpetual and transferrable license for City of Heroes to that engine without paying any future licensing fees.

[Ironwolf]

Just a thought - what would that code cost for the engine from Cryptic - if anyone knows.

Seems that if we have the game engine the rest would be - easier.

[houtex]

You don't really need the engine, you have that in the client.  The server side, however, you need to get from NCSoft for 'easier'.  Acquiring an old version that's been redone several years later is not going to be any different, really, than starting anew to make it from scratch.  Might save a whole month, maybe.