NCsoft officially announces Going Rogue expansion for City of Heroes

The Going Rogue expansion for City of Heroes was (sort of) announced earlier today through SteetWide Concepts, and now NCsoft has seen fit to make it official.

This will be the first major expansion for the City of Heroes franchise since City of Villains was launched in 2005, and promises to "blur the line between heroes and villains".

Both heroes and villains will be thrust into Praetoria, which is governed by Tyrant, the evil incarnation of the game’s main protagonist, Statesman. As both heroes and villains go forth to deal with this menace, it will cause the opposing forces to question their loyalties.

A new alignment system has been implemented allowing each side to switch teams, along with additional missions and two new characters, Maelstrom and Desdemona, to represent the alignment shift in the game’s lore.

More details are expected in the "coming months".

Press release is below.

NCsoft, the world’s premier publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), and Paragon Studios, the developer of City of Heroes, today announced the development of City of Heroes Going Rogue, the first major expansion for the City of Heroes franchise since the launch of City of Villains in 2005. As the name implies, Going Rogue will blur the line between heroes and villains in the first and longest-running super-powered comic book MMO game.

In the Going Rogue expansion, hero and villain characters will become immersed in the new parallel universe known as Praetoria, which is governed by Tyrant, the evil incarnation of the game’s main protagonist, Statesman. As gamers search for Tyrant and the rest of his Praetorian guard, implacable foes and fierce resistance will arise to face them from all sides, causing heroes and villains alike to question their loyalties.

City of Heroes Going Rogue will introduce a new alignment system that helps players explore the shades of gray that lie between good and evil. For the first time, hero characters can become villains and vice versa, enabling hero archetypes to cross over to the Rogue Isles and villain archetypes to experience Paragon City. Clearly marked missions, in addition to behaviors and decisions made by the player, will move a hero’s or villain’s moral compass, which could eventually change the hero’s or villain’s alignment. Going Rogue will also introduce two primary new fictional characters representative of this alignment shift in the game’s lore: Maelstrom, a pistol-wielding hero gone rogue, and Desdemona, a demon-summoning villain who has been redeemed.

“City of Heroes has brought a fresh new perspective to the MMO stage with its foray into the super-powered hero comic book genre, and we are excited to present gamers with even more innovative content in Going Rogue,” said Brian Clayton, general manager and executive producer at Paragon Studios. “For years, players could choose between playing as a hero or a villain. Now we will present a third, malleable path where players can be affected by the results of their actions, enabling them to further develop, unveil new perspectives, and overcome new challenges.”

NCsoft will share more details on Going Rogue in the coming months. The game is currently in development by NCsoft’s Paragon Studios, the City of Heroes development team that most recently launched the ground-breaking Mission Architect system. The launch of Mission Architect sets a significant milestone for City of Heroes as the first MMO to allow players to create user-generated content. City of Heroes has and continues to set new standards among its MMO peers and player community with its engaging and approachable comic book-inspired universe theme and consistent delivery of concepts that break the standard MMO mold.