It’s been a long time coming, but Ship of Heroes finally has a proper release date: August 18th, 2025. Longtime MMO fans will recall that we’ve all been watching Ship of Heroes since 2016, when the indie team at Heroic Games first revealed the MMORPG. At the time, we were counting the game as the fourth spiritual successor for City of Heroes – it was a crowded field back then – and indeed, the devs pitched it as “City of Heroes meets Star Trek” when heading to Kickstarter.
Almost nine years later, the MMORPG landscape has changed dramatically. That Kickstarter didn’t succeed, leading Heroic to fund through donations on its website. And then City of Heroes itself was revived by players in 2019, then formally licensed in 2024. Ship of Heroes’ launch plans kept slipping into the future, and we weren’t entirely sure we were ever going to get it.
But now, we are – and in fact, when it launches, Ship of Heroes will actually be the only City of Heroes spiritual successor that’s actually made it to a live state.
“Our vision was to create a new superhero MMORPG, but in a style closer to the golden age of MMOs,” the devs say today. “One that allows a large numbers of highly customized characters to be on the screen at the same time for raids, costume contests, etc…. And our community wanted a new story with superheroes in an action-packed sci-fi setting. Most of all, people wanted a friendly game where it’d be safe to join teams of total strangers, because they’re generally positive and helpful.”
Other takeaways from the announcement: The studio is adamant that the game will offer content for both soloers and raiders; that it’ll have a box fee and a subscription with no cash shop or lockboxes; and that future expansions are already planned. Steam beta tests and a free demo between now and launch are also on deck.
