Paragon Studios Announces Surprise Closing

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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In a surprise statement on their website, Paragon Studios announced that effective immediately, the studio would close. The company has been in business since 2007 and is best known for the City of Heroes and City of Villains franchises. No further explanation was given for the sudden departure from the gaming scene.

We will have more information regarding a detailed timeline for the cessation of services and what you can expect in game in the coming weeks
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F2P crippleware not working out? What?

Idk, could be other reasons. But, the one thing about a game going F2P, is that they can't go back. Too many people playing free that would flip out if started getting a bill. And on the flip side, people who paid for goodies would flip out if they started paying the same as everyone else and everyone else had the same stuff. Because you can't go back from F2P and your only exit strategy if it doesn't work is some combination of closing down voluntarily or involuntarily.
 
I've never heard of them before now, but superhero junk has a really, really limited appeal to mostly children who grew up reading comic books and are now aging adult men. Maybe the market subgroup just isn't big enough to run a sustainable business.
 
SkribbelKat said:
I've never heard of them before now, but superhero junk has a really, really limited appeal to mostly children who grew up reading comic books and are now aging adult men. Maybe the market subgroup just isn't big enough to run a sustainable business.
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And swinging swords around and casting magic spells is different? ok.
 
jpm100 said:
And swinging swords around and casting magic spells is different? ok.
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Yup, it has a broader appeal for whatever reason. I dunno why it is that way, but look at the number of people that subscribed to WoW.

JoeUser said:
Or shooting space aliens or rescuing a princess from a giant evil turtle...SkribbelKat you have failed.`
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Giant...evil...turtle? :confused:
 
SkribbelKat said:
Giant...evil...turtle? :confused:
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The one keep the world afloat in the great ocean, which stands on top of another turtle, on top of another stack of infinite turtles! When you have infinite turtle, it is scientifically unavoidable that 76% are evil.
 
SkribbelKat said:
I've never heard of them before now, but superhero junk has a really, really limited appeal to mostly children who grew up reading comic books and are now aging adult men. Maybe the market subgroup just isn't big enough to run a sustainable business.
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Are you aware that the Avengers is the third highest grossing movie of all time and Batman: Arkham City is one of the fastest selling videogames ever?

This game 'failing' isn't tied in any way to how small or big the superhero market is. It was just a relatively unknown game that wasn't very good.
 
SkribbelKat said:
Giant...evil...turtle? :confused:
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Bowser from Super Mario Bros.

And:

what-if-im-not-sure-if-serious-or-trolling-thumb.jpg
 
Oh noooo, what will all those super cat-girl furries do now for cyborz?? Looks like they'll all have to go to CO or DCUO.
 
AceCR42 said:
Are you aware that the Avengers is the third highest grossing movie of all time and Batman: Arkham City is one of the fastest selling videogames ever?

This game 'failing' isn't tied in any way to how small or big the superhero market is. It was just a relatively unknown game that wasn't very good.
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That might only mean that comic book fans are also in the demographic that visits movies or buys a lot of video games. It seems that comics, being a visual form of entertainment, also would align somewhat with motion pictures and video games, but maybe not MMOs. It's possible that comic book fans are more solitary and less social which is why they would buy that Batman single player game versus fantasy people being more social and making a bigger splash with fantasy MMOs.

It'd take some pretty detailed market analysis to determine the tendencies of the two subcultures, but the general trend of social fantasy types versus reclusive movie-watching superhero fan might be a real demographic that this particular game studio didn't take into account in its excitement to release something that was doomed to fail because of the aging audience.
 
Err... no. You say that as if superhero-based MMOs are the only games that are failing. For every City of Heroes, there are 10 other fantasy-based MMOs that close up shop or struggle to gain subscribers. Not to mention people don't identify themselves as "comic book fans" or "fantasy people". You're basically implying that people that read comic books don't do ANYTHING else. These aren't high school cliques.

Then again, you seem to have some sort of problem with people that like superheroes.
 
AceCR42 said:
Err... no. You say that as if superhero-based MMOs are the only games that are failing. For every City of Heroes, there are 10 other fantasy-based MMOs that close up shop or struggle to gain subscribers. Not to mention people don't identify themselves as "comic book fans" or "fantasy people". You're basically implying that people that read comic books don't do ANYTHING else. These aren't high school cliques.

Then again, you seem to have some sort of problem with people that like superheroes.
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There are a lot of bad fantasy games out there too, but there are a lot more of them which demonstrates there is a much larger potential market to which a product might be sold. Superhero games, on the other hand, are uncommon and of the few that do exist, obscure and failing broadly.

I don't have anything against the superhero types, but I do notice that a few of them are sensitive about their fandom and find it necessary to accuse anyone making observations that might cast it in a negative light as having a problem with them. :p
 
/sad

Wonder if there is a way to get a copy of the server software? Even with no future updates I'd like to keep the game available to myself. I mostly solo play anyways.

Wonder if this has to do with the big loss I heard about last Q with NCsoft?
 
SkribbelKat said:
There are a lot of bad fantasy games out there too, but there are a lot more of them which demonstrates there is a much larger potential market to which a product might be sold. Superhero games, on the other hand, are uncommon and of the few that do exist, obscure and failing broadly.

I don't have anything against the superhero types, but I do notice that a few of them are sensitive about their fandom and find it necessary to accuse anyone making observations that might cast it in a negative light as having a problem with them. :p
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To be fair, your initial post referred to it as "superhero junk". But people keep missing your disclaimer, SkribbelKat ;)

I played CoH a long time ago, and the game is old enough now that people have probably just moved on. It seems like it lasted a lot longer than the newer MMO Champions Online. As I understand it DC Universe Online is doing well with it's F2P model, but I think it has more to do with the fact that superheroes in that game are recognizable and have a long history in comics.

People don't just want superheroes, they want their comic book superheroes.
 
The last MMO that I truly enjoyed was Pre-CU Star Wars Galaxies.

Pretty much every modern MMO is the same trite derivative formula; it is repetitive drudgery where you simply kill things over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Even the multiplayer portion of MMO has gone away because everything is solo now and no one talks to each other.
 
Space_Ranger said:
Sad... :( I used to enjoy CoH.
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I got worried for a second and thought this company might have something to do with Company of Heroes. Which is awesome, especially now that a new one is in the works. But then was relieved.

It's pretty hard for all the game studios these days. Only ones that seem to be doing well are the miny startups on kickstarter.
 
Sorry to necro.

I'm currently a CoH subscriber. And this took everyone pretty much by surprise.

The game itself, outside of the graphics (which, yeah, even with Ultra Mode, are 8 years old) and PVP, is still the benchmark for superhero MMOs. Champions Online and DC Heroes both compare unfavorably to CoH.

Basically the last five years under NCSoft's ownership have done excellent things for the game. It's almost a completely different game than the one Cryptic launched back in 2004.

The transition to a hybrid model (of which F2P is only part), and the implementation of a cash shop were done primarily to try and augment earnings. Which they DID. For years, CoH players have been screaming "Shut up and take my money!" and NCSoft didn't have a way to monetize that desire for "more stuff".

That's why, in the last year, the size of the studio nearly tripled, and the content was coming out at a faster rate than any time in the history of the game. Unfortunately, the crappy economy took a toll. And that toll was felt in ALL of NCsoft's properties. Not just CoH. They lost over six million dollars in their last quarter and their majority stakeholder was pressuring them to "cut the fat".

There's still life in the property yet though. It's just that CoH can't compete with Triple-A games with multi-million-subscribership bases in the big grindy games. It's not that the game is unprofitable. In the entire time it's been owned by NCSoft it's never failed ot make a profit.

It's just that the profit margins are now such that they don't fit NCSoft's requirements anymore. It's possible that someone willing to settle for the margins it IS pulling, either as a buyer or a licensee, might find the profits entirely acceptable.
 
I hope so.

I wont even play right now I feel so sad about it closing 11/30

It's like whats the point.

I keep hoping someone will buy the MMO and reopen it.

Just seems silly to me to close a profitable business.
 
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