Paragon Studios Closing

A post on Massively today bears the bad news: NCsoft is going to be closing Paragon Studios, the studio behind the long-running superhero MMO, City of Heroes.

The closure will happen before the end of the year, and recurring billing and purchasing will be discontinued right away.

Said the press release by Paragon’s Andy Belford announcing the closure, which is due to a “realignment of company focus and publishing support”:

“The team here at Paragon deserves special praise for all that we have accomplished over the last 5+ years. These developers are some of the most creative and talented people in the gaming industry. By now, we’ve all been given this news internally, but to anyone who may be reading this message after the fact; know that your hard work and dedication has not gone unappreciated or unnoticed. To any potential studios looking to grow your team; hire these people. You won’t regret it.”

It’s sad to hear that the game that’s been running since 2004 is going to be winding down, presumably providing its players with a world-shattering ending. But it’s even sadder to see that, apparently, the people working at Paragon are now going to be out of a job. Hopefully all these folks will be able to put their long years of working on such a big game to good use in new positions somewhere else in the gaming industry.

Good luck heroes—and good luck, former Paragon folks.

Via Massively