New "City of" games coming?

NCsoft Europe boss Geoff Heath has said that a "City of" series unrelated to Heroes and Villains may be in the works.

He was speaking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz about acquiring the IP from developer Cryptic Studios recently, one it set up a new US-based studio to continue working on.

"We'll be bringing out more City of products, some more chapters in the current series, and we're obviously looking at how we can expand the City of franchise generally," he said.

And responding to the question as to whether or not that would specifically mean a new game, he said: "I think you'll get a bit of both, yes."

Although it will be effectively made under new management, much of the staff base will be shifted over to ensure continuity.

"A lot of the people who had been working on the City of Heroes will transition over to that studio and it will be run by Brian Clayton, who was our senior product manager there - in that respect there aren't a lot of changes."

Cryptic Studios is currently working on a Marvel-licensed superhero MMO for Microsoft called Marvel Universe Online. It is a descriptive title; a trend we can't see catching on.