City of Heroes
On November 6, 2007, NCsoft announced that it would assume ownership of both "City of Heroes" and "City of Villains". As part of a push to further develop "City of Heroes", the company also announced the formation of a new development studio dedicated to new titles as well as their interest in distributing and administering their future works once launched. This new team was centered on key members of the Cryptic and NCsoft "City of Heroes/Villains" teams who accepted the NCsoft offer to join their new studio in Northern California. The sale of the City of Heroes IP granted Cryptic Studios the freedom to work on its new superhero MMORPG (at this time, an RPG/Action hybrid) "Champions Online" without concerns of conflict of interest.