>>City of Heroes had new content. It had a steady server list, a steady
>>dev team. There were no warning signs, there were none of the usual
>>indications of trouble.
>
>All good points, and all other things being equal, you would very
>definitely have a point here. On the other hand... NCsoft. The
>Korean Masters have never been what you would call entirely
>trustworthy in these matters. The announcement being so abrupt that
>it actually more or less stepped on hype about new future content, for
>instance, is so classic it almost has a distinct flavor.

Food for thought: NCsoft bought out CoH from Cryptic in November 2007, which will soon be five years ago. Cryptic is now owned by Perfect World Entertainment. Assuming the game's engine was licensed for a 5-year period, and PWE refused to renew the license (why would they agree? NCSoft are their direct competition in the Asian MMO market), NCsoft would have no choice but to shut the game down.