Possible new City of franchise planned?

NCsoft Europe's MD, Geoff Heath, has spoken to GamesIndustry.biz about the recent deal to wholly acquire the City of Heroes/Villains IP from Cryptic, and set up a new studio in the US to continue work on the games.

In the interview he confirmed that work on the existing titles will be ongoing, but also hinted that the company may now look to expand the City of IP with a new title not related to Heroes or Villains.

"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 the game will effectively be under new management much of the staff base will be moved over to the new studio 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."