New efforts!

[Tubbius]

I know what the delay is.  They're secretly slipping into the game image a proper flight harness for Floating Fat Man to use with his characters.

Oh, and a proper fat character body type.

[Joshex]

I know what the delay is.  They're secretly slipping into the game image a proper flight harness for Floating Fat Man to use with his characters.

Oh, and a proper fat character body type.

then Mr. Sumo can live.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Icon is proof of the existence of Icon, and nothing more.

Icon was released within a day or so of someone pointing out the costume creator can run without an active network connection. These things normally take substantially more time than that.
It's almost as if... you know, as if someone made extensive prior effort to research and document the inner workings of the client... and that is something done for a reason, not on a random lark.

Getting the client to run disconnected from everything else is a far cry from re-engineering a functioning game server.

But the required research is in common between both. You're looking at Icon as a product in its' own right, when it was spelled outright it was a byproduct of the reverse engineering efforts.

[kiario]

It could be to do with Eurovision, Sweden did win with a song called heroes

Bingo 

[Surelle]

You have to ask - did our efforts to restore CoH open the doors to OTHER games being sold/leased?

Once the team said hey we will give you money to run that old game - maybe the light went on in NCSoft HQ and they said money for nothing and chicks for free!

Nah, like I said in that same (albeit long) post, MMO developers almost always have "local boys" run their MMOs in other countries for them.  That's been going on for ages.  Between the money valuation differences from country to country and the financial fluctuations, never mind the taxes and language localization issues, it works out better from a business perspective.

GameForge usually runs NCSoft's MMOs in EU (and they run Tera EU for Bluehole Korea too), but their player bases almost universally hate them, which might explain why newcomer (to NCSoft, anyway) Innova nabbed the publishing rights to Lineage 2 in EU.

Even Blizzard gets local publishers to run WoW for them in China, Korea and Japan, etc.  It would just be too difficult even just running servers that far away.  And how many Americans are able or willing to move to China and live and communicate comfortably with the locals?  It would be a very isolated existence, and very different from everything they know.  Not to mention that other countries enforce their laws concerning what is in the games and certain content must be altered to comply....  It can be quite an ordeal to run an MMO in a foreign country, actually.

[Waffles]

Not to sound like an over-entitled prat, but I'm kind of starting to get annoyed.

Those knowledgeable about this sort of thing, how common is it for a deal like this to go on for this long?

[Ohioknight]

Not to sound like an over-entitled prat, but I'm kind of starting to get annoyed.

Those knowledgeable about this sort of thing, how common is it for a deal like this to go on for this long?

I'd say that since there's only one deal like this, its universal. 

That said, I no longer think there's any real chance that NCSoft will do anything about this unless the configuration of the company radically changes. 

[Surelle]

...
I no longer think there's any real chance that NCSoft will do anything about this unless the configuration of the company radically changes.

Well...yeah.  But hey, we are no worse off than we were before Nate & Crew gave this a shot, and it's amazing they even got this far given NCSoft's typical history with its shuttered MMOs.  Every one I can think of (Garriott with Tabula Rasa, NetDevil with Auto Assault, Paragon Studios with CoX) all tried desperately to get their MMOs out of the evil clutches hands of NCSoft once NC had decided to shut each of them down, to no avail.  And they each had a much greater chance of success in that they each had way more experience and resources than anybody trying since then has had.

The fact that Nate & Crew could even turn NCSoft's heads concerning leasing the CoX IP never mind possibly throwing in an image of the i23 shutdown, especially so long after CoX's demise, is impressive.  But clearly NCSoft really doesn't care too much about bringing CoX back or licensing it to others to continue on with, or they would have jumped on this a year and a half ago.

Heck, if CoX was in any way valuable to them, they wouldn't have shuttered it to begin with.  That's the sad truth.

But it gave us something fun to think about and hope for, and we haven't had even this much of a sliver of hope since the shutdown.  So thanks to Nate & Crew, and maybe some miracle will happen down the road and we'll get to play CoX again via NCSoft, or through SCoRE or what have you.

[Vee]

I love how this thread loops every hundred or so pages 

[Teikiatsu]

Not to sound like an over-entitled prat, but I'm kind of starting to get annoyed.

Those knowledgeable about this sort of thing, how common is it for a deal like this to go on for this long?

I can't speak for the exact same scenario, but I can comment on multiple company interaction.  For the last 5 years my company has produced a number of products in conjunction with another company.  We transfer some materials to them, they combine ours with their and send back to us for final preparation.

Now we want to transfer the licenses for those products so that we 100% produce and prepare from beginning to end.  The other company is receiving a very large amount of compensation. 

Our companies are less than 100 miles apart, zero language or cultural barriers.  No concerns on knowledge base.  This process started in mid-2013.  It is still ongoing.  Earliest expected dates of complete transfer are Q4 of 2015.

Among the roadblocks have been egos, personnel leaving and moving, miscommunications and differences in business practices and validation processes.

My wife also points out with her business that ripple effects from internal changes can have geometric impacts on partner companies.  Her company is a contractor for a large chain that anyone in America would recognize.  Currently this household-name company is changing their computer systems and timelines which is creating havoc for service-oriented companies like hers, who want to maintain their contracts and agreements but are only now aware of the changes.

[MM3squints]

I love how this thread loops every hundred or so pages 

This thread seems to follow this pattern (the 6th step you can have it litigation or getting a private server):

[Snickerdoodle1429]

So this is around the time people start giving up? lol. There hasn't been any official word yet, just because there is a long time between updates doesn't mean the wheels aren't turning.

[lotus]

Eh, as more time goes on and on less people will want to play even if the game does come back. NcSoft is a company that just simply doesn't care what it's customers think. Just what the guys in the war room say about finances and who they should put on the chop block next. I still will not play another NcSoft game and invest time and money because of this just to have it shut down so soon.

[LaughingAlex]

I'd rather have city of heroes back and be able to play it while experimenting on new builds though, than to touch a certain other game that has betrayed me and every person with a brain.

[Illusionss]

Teikiatsu: Our companies are less than 100 miles apart, zero language or cultural barriers.  No concerns on knowledge base.  This process started in mid-2013.  It is still ongoing.  Earliest expected dates of complete transfer are Q4 of 2015.

NC runs a real risk of dilly-dallying so long, that people will not even care because the launch of new games will give people something new to do, a new place to recreate all their beloved alts and we'll be doing that with an improved game engine. An engine light-years ahead of that which CoX enjoyed, in fact.

Keep it up. Become irrelevant. See if we care. By the way, I'll REALLY enjoy the news that Bits n'Tits is going F2P on Steam about 1.5 years after launch. I am not usually one to enjoy other's tears, but *these* corporate tears... I'm gonna lap them up. Too bad so sad about Wildstar, right?  Sob it out, NC. I'll watch with the same detachment you gave OUR tears in 2012.

What goes around, sometimes comes around.

[Mistress Urd]

NC runs a real risk of dilly-dallying so long, that people will not even care because the launch of new games will give people something new to do, a new place to recreate all their beloved alts and we'll be doing that with an improved game engine. An engine light-years ahead of that which CoX enjoyed, in fact.

Keep it up. Become irrelevant. See if we care. By the way, I'll REALLY enjoy the news that Bits n'Tits is going F2P on Steam about 1.5 years after launch. I am not usually one to enjoy other's tears, but *these* corporate tears... I'm gonna lap them up. Too bad so sad about Wildstar, right?  Sob it out, NC. I'll watch with the same detachment you gave OUR tears in 2012.

What goes around, sometimes comes around.

Yep, I voted with my wallet. While 1 vote isn't much, I'm sure several other like minded folks did the same.

[GenericHero05]

If it takes 10 years to return, I will still jump on it with as much rabid enthusiasm as if it were re-launched yesterday.

[RGladden]

If it takes 10 years to return, I will still jump on it with as much rabid enthusiasm as if it were re-launched yesterday.

Bingo!  And I'll be as positive about the negotiations tomorrow as I was yesterday.....and will be until it returns.

Positive but impatient...

[artbunker]

Hey if it comes back excellent. If not well we have  other games coming soon. Let this be a lesson to businesses not to always think in short run bottom line. I believe NCsoft is costing itself millions right now . However its their property and their right to sell or hold on to it (no matter how stupid, selfish and against common sense  it seems to be).

I hope the game returns very soon. It was a great game and I still have dreams of doing missions again. After playing tons of other MMO's , this was the best in terms of balance, fun and community. Long Live the City of Heroes Forever. Lets keep praying and hoping that the negoiations would go very well and they bring our city back.

[Noyjitat]

This thread seems to follow this pattern (the 6th step you can have it litigation or getting a private server):

How could you expect less? I get more and more irritated with this shit everytime a week passes and no news. I guess I don't understand why they simply can't sell the property they own and are not making a dime on it at all while it sits.

Someone there needs to take note of all the rage and desperation here and push things along.