Now City of Heroes goes F2P

Publisher NCsoft has revealed that City of Heroes, its successful PC superhero MMO, is to become a free-to-play title. It’s also getting a new name – City of Heroes: Freedom.

The move mirrors that made by both rival title Champions Online and also by other MMOs such as The Lord of the Rings Online.

City of Heroes players who currently subscribe can continue to do so and will receive a host of benefits should they choose such as free Paragon Points and additional content.

F2P users can still take their characters all the way to level 50 but will see some restrictions put on their play, along with the loss of live support.

"Freedom is about getting more content into the hands of our players, whether they are subscribing or playing for free," executive producer Brian Clayton stated.

"To do this, we’ve looked at City of Heroes from the ground up and focused on three ways to enhance the experience by giving our players more choices, greater rewards and the best content we’ve ever produced. And for the first time ever, players can choose to enjoy more than seven years of content for free."

A host of F2P titles, including Champions Online, were recently made available on the Steam store.