City of Heroes Headed to the Mac

NCsoft sent out a press release a little while ago announcing plans to bring City of Heroes to the Mac later this year.

NCsoft and TransGaming Announce City of Heroes for the Mac

Battle of Good vs. Evil Now Available on Two Platforms

SEATTLE and TORONTO, Ontario, October 30, 2008 NCsoft®, the world’s premier publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), today announced a partnership with TransGaming, Inc. (TSX-V: TNG) to bring their award-winning City of Heroes® franchise to the Apple® Macintosh®. The game has been enabled for the Mac by TransGaming, a leading developer of portability technologies for the electronic entertainment industry. City of Heroes for Mac will be available for public beta testing with the release of the game’s thirteenth expansion, Issue 13: Power and Responsibility later this fall. The official launch will occur pre-holiday this year with a special digital-only Mac edition of City of Heroes, available across all NCsoft West consumer territories.

(Players will soon be able to join the battle of good versus evil in the most popular comic book MMO on both the PC and Mac platforms.and in the same game world,) commented Brian Clayton, executive producer of City of Heroes for NCsoft West. (Given Mac’s fame as a platform for creative people and City of Heroes’ unprecedented character customization options, I think City of Heroes is a perfect fit for the Mac gaming community.)

In City of Heroes, the most popular comic book inspired MMO on the market, players craft their hero or villain identities and join millions of other player created characters in a constantly expanding universe. Unparalleled character customization is a hallmark of the City of Heroes franchise. Players can choose from hundreds of different powers and thousands of costume options, resulting in near limitless personalization. Players may go it alone or band together with others in super groups.

City of Heroes for Mac was made possible using TransGaming’s CiderTM Portability Engine, which acts as a “wrapper” around the game software, enabling it to run seamlessly on Intel-based Macs. The partnership with NCsoft to develop and publish City of Heroes for Mac offers the Mac gaming community its first opportunity to do battle in the streets of Paragon Cityâ„¢ and the Rogue Islesâ„¢ in a persistent universe with no differentiation between the PC and Mac. (NCsoft’s City of Heroes MMO is an incredible franchise and TransGaming is thrilled to provide Mac gamers the ability to demonstrate their creativity by building their own heroes and villains and immersing themselves in the battle between good and evil,) commented Vikas Gupta, CEO & president of TransGaming. (Through Cider, the Mac version will parallel the developments of the PC version, providing all game updates, new features, and storylines simultaneously on both platforms.)

The City of Heroes Mac Special Edition digital product will be sold at the PlayNC store and at GameTree Online. City of Heroes is rated “T” for Teen. For more information about City of Heroes go to http://www.cityofheroes.com.

About NCsoft
NCsoft, headquartered in Seoul, Korea, is the world’s premier publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games, including the critically acclaimed Lineage®, Guild Wars® and City of Heroes® franchises. NCsoft West is a division of NCsoft which holds operating responsibilities for North America, Europe, South America and Australia/New Zealand. More information can be found at http://www.PlayNC.com.

About TransGaming, Inc.
TransGaming Inc. (TSX-V: TNG), is a leader in the development of unique software portability products that facilitate the deployment of games across multiple platforms. TransGaming’s portability technologies significantly reduce the time-to-market for and costs associated with multi-platform game releases. TransGaming works with many of the industry’s leading developers and publishers to enable their games on the Mac and Linux operating systems, and currently markets its products under four brand names: Cider (Mac Gaming), Cedega (Linux Gaming), SwiftShader (Graphics Rendering) and GameTreeOnline.com (Digital Retail). TransGaming is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and maintains a research and development center in Ottawa, Canada. To learn more about TransGaming’s products visit www.transgaming.com.