How Did City Of Heroes Homecoming Become Official? NCSoft And The Homecoming Teams Tell All

“We want this to feel like the home we all lost, and we want everybody to feel welcome."

The resurrection of City of Heroes through a fan-run server was an MMO miracle. Following years of uncertainty and underground efforts to keep the game alive, the official license granted by NCSoft means an actual future City of Heroes, and a bright one at that. Who do we have to thank for this achievement? The Homecoming team.

Composed of dedicated volunteers, this group played a pivotal role in reviving the game. They understood how much City of Heroes meant to its players and sought a partnership with NCSoft behind the scenes, according to PCGamer. Other fan-run servers operated in secrecy and eventually faced cease and desist orders. That’s why Homecoming pursued legitimacy.

"We believed that working with NCSoft was the only way to make this possible. Even though we believed this was the best course of action for keeping the game alive, we knew it was far from a sure thing," said the Homecoming team in the interview.

NCSoft wasn’t down with this at first, of course. A non-commercial license for a sunset game? Blasphemy! However, the company eventually gave the go-ahead for this unique opportunity for collaboration. "We were initially skeptical about their proposal," said NCSoft. "To our knowledge, a AAA publisher/developer like NC West had never undertaken a non-commercial license of a sunset game. Ostensibly, such an undertaking would be too resource-intensive and risky to justify without benefiting a meaningful number of a game’s fans."

After extensive negotiations and discussions, both parties reached an agreement that would allow Homecoming to operate as an officially sanctioned server.

"From there we needed to subject Homecoming to meaningful guardrails in its operation of City of Heroes," NCSoft says. "And take steps to confirm that, as a practical matter, Homecoming was likely to abide by all guardrails we imposed."

So what’s next? The server continues to be funded by donations, and Homecoming remains committed to preserving City of Heroes. There’s even plans for new additions to the game, while NCSoft provides ongoing oversight.