Cross-posted from CoH forums because I wrote this long thing and may as well not waste it...
Remember that "Cryptic Studios" icon that used to be everywhere in the game? It was there because some of the characters, including Statesman, were still owned by them. I suppose at some point NCSoft decided they didn't want to pay the license fees anymore, so they had to remove the last of the Cryptic characters from the game.
Which makes the sudden "sunsetting" even more strange, because NC was asking so much work to be put in the game to free it from its licensing agreements and make it independent. They made an effort to spin off Paragon Studios and make it autonomous, and encouraged them to not slow down, but accelerate the issue release schedule. They haven't tried this hard for *any* other game in their stable. And after all that they just cut it off? All I'll say is, I don't understand the logic behind the decision.
Ok, that's not exactly true, the only logic that makes sense is if NCSoft is days, weeks away from closing its doors from lack of finances, and their only choice is to immediately stop anything that costs money - whether its profitable in the long run or not, because there wouldn't be a long run.
Actually I'm counting on that possibility. Because if that's true, it also explains why they haven't sold the game to another company, or even entertained offers before now (they didn't have the time). And it *may* also make them more open to offers, so they get an infusion of cash, and they divest themselves of the expense. Yes, I actually thought this through.
I also thought of the possibility that one offer draws *more*. Because CoH is a profitable game with a somewhat healthy population, if there is one announcement of intent to purchase, there may be more. There are several software companies out there who specialize in revitalizing and/or keeping alive older titles, like Lord of the Rings Online. I know some of you may not like some of them (Perfect World could possibly be a bidder as well, maybe even Blizzard, though they generally prefer in-house titles) but at this point? Anywhere but here is better.
Of course, as I've said before, this all depends on whether NCSoft wants to let go. It's conceivable that they're killing CoH because they planned to replace it, only they don't have the money now, so they'll sit on the property until they do. We could try to talk them out of that, or into some sort of licensing arrangement, though that's not a certainty either. Until we know for sure, we know nothing but possibilities. But possibility is also what we're hoping for.
