City of Villians Collector's Edition Announced

[Evil Avatar]

NCSoft sends along a Press Release announcing the Collector's Edition of City of Villains.

NCsoft North America has revealed the contents for the City of Villains Collector’s Edition retail game pack that will be released to stores in North America when the game launches later this fall.

City of Villains, developed by Cryptic Studios and published by NCsoft, is the stand-alone sequel to the hit game, City of Heroes, and allows players to create a villainous persona and build a virtual criminal empire. Highlighting the City of Villains Collector’s Edition package is a set of seven limited-edition HeroClix figures from WizKids, composed of three hero figures and four villain figures, including an exclusive Lord Recluse HeroClix.

The City of Villains Collector’s Edition will also contain a DVD version of the game, giving players access to an exclusive in-game cape and chest emblem from Arachnos, the game’s top villain group. Also included in the package is a map of The Rogue Isles, the chain of islands that makes up City of Villains.

The Collector’s Edition also includes a book featuring art from City of Villains and City of Heroes, a preview deck of the City of Heroes collectible card game designed by the Alderac Entertainment Group as well as a single limited edition City of Heroes foil collector’s card.

The City of Villains Collector’s Edition will sell at an anticipated price of US$79.99. City of Villains preorder purchases can be applied to the Collector’s Edition or regular edition of the City of Villains game. Subscription pricing for the game will be announced in the fall.

For more information about City of Villains, go to www.cityofvillains.com. (http://www.cityofvillains.com./)

[Heretic Machine]

The heroclix seems cool... the cape and emblem suck however, as I hate premium items in MMO's. Might as well start doing what UO does, and put up item codes for sale on your friggin website.

[DeadPixel]

These guys are hurting for subscribers right now, I wonder how many people will come back and how long the euphoria will last for the expansion. I recently left the game *again* after the last patch. I don't see myself coming back the 3rd time.

[A-Team]

These guys are hurting for subscribers right now, I wonder how many people will come back and how long the euphoria will last for the expansion. I recently left the game *again* after the last patch. I don't see myself coming back the 3rd time.
It's not an expansion. 'City of Villains' is a stand-alone product, not to be confused with your typical "expansion pack" or any of that nonsense.

As for their subscriber base, I've heard the complete opposite. They seem to be doing just fine in both Europe and the U.S..

[Demo_Boy]

Seems like a slightly steep price for a very nice collectors edition package.

[BalekFekete]

The subscriber base for City of Heroes has been increasing slightly over the past several months, and has been more than enough to consider the game a success and worth of the sister product that City of Villains offers.

I am eagerly looking forward to playing both, however, I'm not certain if the contents of the premium package warrants the price...but enough to get me thinking about it at least.

B.

[Bushido]

Can we get some stats? WoW#1 followed by Coh? then what?

[A-Team]

Can we get some stats? WoW#1 followed by Coh? then what?
I'm not going to do something that Google can do for you, but I will tell you that CoH isn't second to WoW in terms of subscribers. :)

[siz]

A lot of people use http://www.mmogchart.com/
for looking at subscriber numbers, however they haven't updated it in a while so it still shows WoW at 2 million when Blizzard recently announced they had 4 million subscribers.

Looking at the mmogchart it seems that City of Villians peeked in Aug. 2004 when NCSoft released a press release that they had 180,000 subs. It dropped after that but has been rising again recently.

[DeadPixel]

The subscriber base for City of Heroes has been increasing slightly over the past several months, and has been more than enough to consider the game a success and worth of the sister product that City of Villains offers.
Don't get me wrong, I think the game was a pretty good success, but I hardly believe they are happy with the subscription base. In the end this is a business and they have to come up with decent profit to maintain the project as well as new development. When compared to Lineage 2 (in Korea) or WoW they are not doing so well.

I believe the expansion will bring back a lot of customers, but many will flock back to WoW after their expansion is out and stay there. I don't play either these days, let's just call it a nice long break :D

[Draft]

It's not an expansion. 'City of Villains' is a stand-alone product, not to be confused with your typical "expansion pack" or any of that nonsense.Same engine, same gameplay with slight tweaks, same zones with some new ones thrown in.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

[A-Team]

Same engine, same gameplay with slight tweaks, same zones with some new ones thrown in.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...
That is not what I meant when I said stand-alone product. An expansion pack is just that: an expansion package for a game already in existence.

City of Villains is a stand-alone product, meaning that you don't need CoH to play.

P.S. - The engine was tweaked too. :P

[Moatman]

Same engine, same gameplay with slight tweaks, same zones with some new ones thrown in.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

Hmm...all new zones(7 fairly massive zones I believe for pve, 4 for pve to be shared with coh) All new classes with what seem like dramatic play differences, including one class that summons multiple minions even at an early level. All new mission types to reflect being a villain, they will have cinematics(like the non-interactive parts of a gta mission) to explain what's going on. Improved graphics engine, the new water and effects look great in the video's.

Not sure exactly where you're getting your "nothing is really new" stance, but it sounds like you are just assuming based on...who knows what. I hear that you will even, at some point in your villain's career, get to work on your faction with various "badguy" factions, to see who hates you or not. Considering this is enough content to warrant an entire mmo of its own that, yes, can be linked up to your coh account to allow even more major things like....Base building and raiding...don't see any "housing in wow...

Do I feel coh needs something at times, yes indeedilydoodily do think it needs osme form of non-combat activities, be they crafting(what would you craft) or skills(a good idea, too bad they've internally scrapped 2 builds on a skill system...) I do *love* the pve aspect of the game though, it's so fast paced and exciting, so many things going on at once and yet you won't wipe from a single little mistake, maybe a death or two, but it's usually recoverable if you know what you are doing...too many mmo's have the "if you screw up just a little, you are gonna wipe" type of combat, that's not fun to me.

If they can get the cov/coh linkup working well with pvp, and the base building and raiding is as cool as it looks and sounds, I think they could drawn in a lot of the naysayers and make them eat crow.

[Draft]

That is not what I meant when I said stand-alone product. An expansion pack is just that: an expansion package for a game already in existence.

City of Villains is a stand-alone product, meaning that you don't need CoH to play.

P.S. - The engine was tweaked too. :PThere have been standalone expansion packs. Disciples II had one.

Also, I'm not a City of Heroes naysayer. I have a level 38 blaster named Captain Cicada in Virtue and for a few months that game consumed my life. But post 35 progress slows to a halt and the grind was too much for me.

If CoH characters leveled fast like WoW characters do, I'd probably still be playing CoH, and working on my 3rd or 4th level 50 toon.

[A Lusty Alien]

I'm going to get City of Villains, may even get the Collector's Edition, but I don't think I'm going to play the game; not much anyway. I'm in the Beta and I find I feel uncomfortable playing the role of a bad guy. This is not to say that it's a bad game, its very enjoyable and they've added some really fun game play elements that's not currently in City of Heroes.

I know a number of people that enjoy City of Heroes that have told me they are not getting City of Villains because they do not want their kids playing the part of a criminal.

It's not the same as, say, playing a Dark Elf or Ogre in EverQuest or WoW. In those games, the difference between Good and Evil races seems largely political. For all intents and purposes it might as well be Republicans vs. Democrats, with the neutral races Libertarian. (I find it very hard to consider the "Good" races as being superior to the "Evil" ones when I find them camping the Dark Elf Guards that spawn at the bridge in Nektulos Forest.)

[Steve_Erhardt]

Subscription pricing for the game will be announced in the fall.

Whoa whoa whoa... when did I blink? I thought CoV was going to be part of your CoH subscription, not an entirely seperate subscription... WTF? Was I somehow fucked in the head to begin with, or did this change at some point while I wasn't looking? I love CoH, but I'm not gonna pinch myself with $15/mo for CoH AND another $15/mo for CoV... that's just bullshit.

Or am I just reading this wrong?

[Nameback]

Whoa whoa whoa... when did I blink? I thought CoV was going to be part of your CoH subscription, not an entirely seperate subscription... WTF? Was I somehow fucked in the head to begin with, or did this change at some point while I wasn't looking? I love CoH, but I'm not gonna pinch myself with $15/mo for CoH AND another $15/mo for CoV... that's just bullshit.

Or am I just reading this wrong?

I'd assume this is for new subscribers, I'd hope.

[A-Team]

There have been standalone expansion packs. Disciples II had one.

Also, I'm not a City of Heroes naysayer. I have a level 38 blaster named Captain Cicada in Virtue and for a few months that game consumed my life. But post 35 progress slows to a halt and the grind was too much for me.

If CoH characters leveled fast like WoW characters do, I'd probably still be playing CoH, and working on my 3rd or 4th level 50 toon.
Point well taken. :D

[Babbster]

Don't get me wrong, I think the game was a pretty good success, but I hardly believe they are happy with the subscription base. In the end this is a business and they have to come up with decent profit to maintain the project as well as new development. When compared to Lineage 2 (in Korea) or WoW they are not doing so well.

So, one breath you call CoH a "pretty good success," while in the next you imply that they're not making a decent profit. If they had 150,000 subscribers (just grabbing a relatively round number that's lower than current estimates), that would be $2.25 million per month. Unless you think that they're paying more than 80% of that money for server upkeep and the live team, they'd be making a VERY healthy profit.

And the bottom line is that you can't compare one MMOG to another in order to determine either its success, its profitability, or its potential longevity (the last being perhaps the most important to the customers). If that's the way it was done, then EQ would have been shut down, UO would be gone, Dark Age of Camelot wouldn't exist, etc.

Whoa whoa whoa... when did I blink? I thought CoV was going to be part of your CoH subscription, not an entirely seperate subscription... WTF?

"The fuck" is that they haven't announced the pricing structure. The devs have basically said two things in terms of CoH/CoV pricing: 1) You won't be able to get two for the price of one; and 2) they are planning to offer a discounted price for those who want to play both games. While they haven't announced anything final in terms of pricing, they're well aware of the risk of alienating current CoH subscribers if they charge full price to play both games.

My expectation is that it'll be $15/month for one or the other and $20/month to play both. My reasoning is that they can't justify charging much more considering that the other big MMOG package deal (that of SoE) is $22/month and offers access to six "premium" games (well, five plus EQ Online Adventures for PS2). Hopefully, they'll go even further and arrange a similar plan for all the NCSoft MMOGs.

[caenelgren]

Whoa whoa whoa... when did I blink? I thought CoV was going to be part of your CoH subscription, not an entirely seperate subscription... WTF? Was I somehow fucked in the head to begin with, or did this change at some point while I wasn't looking? I love CoH, but I'm not gonna pinch myself with $15/mo for CoH AND another $15/mo for CoV... that's just bullshit.

Or am I just reading this wrong?

Back when I still played CoH they never revealed the pricing structure (guess they still haven't) but they've always pretty much come out and said it was a separate subscription fee. They're making a point to try and make it clear these are completely separate products but that they can interact with each other. If someone only buys CoH they won't have access to certain CoV content and vice versa; however, there were also rumours of a combined monthly fee which gives you access to both at a pricepoint cheaper than $30/month. If someone goes out and does buy both it'd be nice to receive an incentive/discount to be subscribed to them at the same time. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Edit: Looks like Babbster's seen the same ;) I would've suspected the same pricing scheme but I guess we'll have to wait for them to actually reveal everything.

[Bushido]

rumours of a combined monthly fee which gives you access to both at a pricepoint cheaper than $30/month. .


HAHAHAHAHA *gasp* hahahahaha....

[Heretic Machine]

They've been saying that the subscription wouldn't be raised much more than $3 if you subscribed to both. That's what Statesmen himself has been saying.

[Zurik]

If the game has no crafting and focuses on combat, how come there's so few different enemies to fight? I really wanted to love this game, but its way too damn repeatative and felt slow.

[caenelgren]

HAHAHAHAHA *gasp* hahahahaha....

Apparently..

[caenelgren]

They've been saying that the subscription wouldn't be raised much more than $3 if you subscribed to both. That's what Statesmen himself has been saying.

I'd love for that to be true, it'd be worth picking up CoV to check it out again while respec'ing some of my old characters. It's a deterrent when not being subscribed to the game automatically makes you unable to log onto the main forums.

[nonchalance]

Don't get me wrong, I think the game was a pretty good success, but I hardly believe they are happy with the subscription base. In the end this is a business and they have to come up with decent profit to maintain the project as well as new development. When compared to Lineage 2 (in Korea) or WoW they are not doing so well.

Yeah.

And compared to the Beatles or Elvis, Nine Inch Nails are not going so well.
Nonetheless, he's pretty successful.

[Steve_Erhardt]

"The fuck" is that they haven't announced the pricing structure. The devs have basically said two things in terms of CoH/CoV pricing: 1) You won't be able to get two for the price of one; and 2) they are planning to offer a discounted price for those who want to play both games. While they haven't announced anything final in terms of pricing, they're well aware of the risk of alienating current CoH subscribers if they charge full price to play both games.

My expectation is that it'll be $15/month for one or the other and $20/month to play both. My reasoning is that they can't justify charging much more considering that the other big MMOG package deal (that of SoE) is $22/month and offers access to six "premium" games (well, five plus EQ Online Adventures for PS2). Hopefully, they'll go even further and arrange a similar plan for all the NCSoft MMOGs.
Hrm... I'd go for that. I hope your line of thinking is right.