There's no real British equivalent to alluding to a ploy as "a Hail Mary pass", but that's rather besides the point. As the date of November 30th looms large, awaiting the death knell for City of Heroes' servers, the campaigners fighting the shutting down of the game -aptly titled Save City of Heroes - have reached out to Disney in a last ditch attempt to court a buyer.
Author Mercedes Lackey helped to draft the pitch to Disney Interactive, saying: “We believe that Disney and City of Heroes are a perfect match; Disney now owns Marvel and two impending Marvel MMOs which are slated to be mirror opposites of the cooperative, community gameplay fostered by City of Heroes.
“By reviving City of Heroes, Disney will be able to satisfy the gaming desires of every player of MMORPGs. In addition, Disney has the reach to effortlessly give City of Heroes the exposure it never had under NCSoft’s regime of benign neglect--and City of Heroes will provide Disney with some extremely unique cross-marketing opportunities. Disney has always understood and fostered community and loyalty--something NCSoft never did.
“We believe that acquiring City of Heroes will provide Disney Interactive with the logical extension of their games for kids and teens, offering a game that literally the whole family can play.”
NCsoft made a direct statement to the player base of City of Heroes at the beginning of October decisively confirming the closure of Paragon Studios and setting a date (November 30th) for the shutting down of the popular MMO. This was in the face of a campaign that had not only secured 21,000 signatures petitioning against the closure, but had also attracted support from the likes of Neil Gaiman, Sean Astin, Felicia Day, not to mention novelists John C. Wright and the aforementioned Ms. Lackey.
NCsoft have apparently "exhausted all options" to sell the franchise on, so it would seem that the #SaveCOH campaign are making their own impassioned pitch. Time will tell if they prove successful, but there's just really not a huge amount of it left.
We wish them the very best of luck, and have contacted Disney for comment.
