City of Heroes will be going free-to-play later this year! Following seven years of subscription-based service, the grandfather of comic book MMOs will be adopting a hybrid model with the launch of City of Heroes Freedom. Once the service is live, players will have three options: play through the available free content, return to the game and enjoy some premium perks, or pay a subscription to become a VIP member and gain access to exclusive content.

Of course, there will be a new Paragon Market in-game store where you can purchase costumes, powers, items and other services using Paragon Points. All players are welcome to buy as many points as they like, but VIP members will receive 400 bonus points per month as part of their subscription. City of Heroes subscribers will start accumulating these points starting July 1 to get them ready for the launch of the free-to-play version of the game. VIP players will also earn Paragon Rewards as part of Paragon's loyalty program.

Freedom kicks off with the release of Issue 21: Convergence, an update that includes the First Ward co-op zone, the Time Manipulation Power Set, the IDF and Defense Costume Sets, and the Underground Incarnate Trial Signature story arcs. Expect an increase in the pace of content when Freemium is released.

For more details on the free-to-play switch, check out the official FAQ. You can also view the side-by-side comparison of the free, premium and VIP plans after the jump.

UPDATE: Executive Producer and General Manager Brian Clayton has written a letter outlining Freedom and explaining why Paragon Studios chose this route. More developers will be posting Freedom details throughout the week, culminating in "Freedom Friday," which is when they'll answer questions from players on Facebook.

Paragon Studios has released issue #7 of the Intrepid Informer, and it features Lead Mission Designer John "Protean" Hegner discussing, appropriately enough, the process behind designing missions in City of Heroes.

Henger explains in detail the work that is involved in making an issue's missions a reality. "My advice: aim for the moon, but do everything in your power to make the job of the engineers and artists that are building your rocket easier," he said. 

Matt "Positron" Miller and Sean "Dr. Aeon" McCann will be continuing this mission design discussion in the next two issues of the Intrepid Informer, so keep an eye out for the remaining parts of the series.

Paragon Studios has announced that City of Heroes will be in attendance at their favorite convention of the year, San Diego Comic Con. Join the team at booth #5345 from July 21-24.

The CoH team will be on hand to show the game as well as answer all your questions! Representatives of the Community and Development team of Paragon Studios will also be in attendance.

Of course, what would SDCC be without a new Costume Code? This year fans can pick up the Mk-VI "Victoria" code. She's a deadly assassin that could soon be yours to impersonate! So don't forget to stop by the City of Heroes booth at San Diego Comic Con!

If you've ever wanted to dress up your hero or villain in steampunk garb, now's your chance! The City of Heroes Steampunk Pack is now available in the NCsoft store for $9.99. Here's what you'll get for that price tag:

• Steampunk Pack Costume Parts: The Steampunk Pack unlocks more than 60 new costume parts for all characters including heads, hairstyles, chests, belts, legs, boots, weapons, wings and for the first time ever, backpacks.
• Steam Jump Travel Power: Harness the furious power and speed of steam to rocket through the air with the new Steam Jump travel power available at level 4.
• New Auras: The Steampunk Pack offers two new tintable auras, including the Victorian Décor and the Clunker Aura, the first-ever path aura that allows characters to leave a customized, visible trail of oil and gears wherever they walk.
• Emotes: Activate new character and Steampunk-themed costume change emotes including Inspiration, Train Whistle, Hot Temper, Oil Strike and Pressure Release.

You can get a glimpse of this Victorian noir style in the creative trailer below. Get ready to chastise ne'erdowells and become the talk of the town in your steampunk gear!

I recently wrote about my experiences with Aion's 2.5 update, which I was able to enjoy at NCsoft’s offices in San Francisco. However, Aion was the second half of the event; the first course was with an entirely different team and focused on City of Heroes, particularly Issue 20. Lead Producer Nate Birkholz and Lead Systems Designer Matt Miller of Paragon Studios were able to give us a detailed look at the history of City of Heroes up to this point, to clue us in on what makes the game a hardened veteran in the saturated field of superhero MMOs, and to lead us through Lambda Sector, one of the new Incarnate Trials.

The City of Heroes team has published the third and final part of its 7th Anniversary Retrospective, and it features the developers sharing their favorite things about Paragon Studios. Also, Melissa "War Witch" Bianco and Jesse "Ghost Falcon" Caceres list some of the infamous pranks that have been pulled over the years.

The list of pranks is an interesting read. With titles like "The Shock Pen Scenario" and "The 'WHAT Did They Eat?' Bathroom Caper," it's pretty obvious the Paragon team knows how to have some fun at work.

If you've ever wanted to dress up your hero or villain in steampunk garb, you'll soon have that chance! NCsoft just announced that the City of Heroes Steampunk Pack will be available on June 1 for $9.99. Here's what you'll get for that price tag:

• Steampunk Pack Costume Parts: The Steampunk Pack unlocks more than 60 new costume parts for all characters including heads, hairstyles, chests, belts, legs, boots, weapons, wings and for the first time ever, backpacks.
• Steam Jump Travel Power: Harness the furious power and speed of steam to rocket through the air with the new Steam Jump travel power available at level 4.
• New Auras: The Steampunk Pack offers two new tintable auras, including the Victorian Décor and the Clunker Aura, the first-ever path aura that allows characters to leave a customized, visible trail of oil and gears wherever they walk.
• Emotes: Activate new character and Steampunk-themed costume change emotes including Inspiration, Train Whistle, Hot Temper, Oil Strike and Pressure Release.

You can get a glimpse of this Victorian noir style in the creative trailer below. Get ready to chastise ne'erdowells and become the talk of the town in your steampunk gear!

Due to the launch of City of Heroes' new Global Server Access feature, which puts all the North American and European servers on the same list, Paragon Studios has kicked off a reactivation week to bring heroes and villains back to the game. All inactive accounts will be reactivated until May 18, so now is the perfect time to log back in and celebrate City of Heroes' seventh anniversary.

A free global handle token will be applied to all accounts affected by a global handle name collision. Trial accounts will not be reactivated, but all trial account global names will be renamed to "Trial####" to prevent trial account global name collisions with active accounts.

Also, Paragon has published the second part of its City of Heroes Retrospective. Members of the dev team have selected their favorite videos and convention memories. They also look back on the game's launch day.

This is a big week for City of Heroes players. Global Server Access is scheduled to launch on May 10, which will unite all of the North American and European servers on the same list. Also, the Praetorian Surge event kicks off on May 11 and runs through May 27.

The Global Server Access launch date is subject to change if the team runs into any issues, so don't be surprised if it gets pushed back a bit.

In celebration of City of Heroes' seventh anniversary, some developers have shared their thoughts on the game in the first part of a new retrospective series. They each chose their favorite issue and explained what it was like to develop it. Here's a list of their favorite issues:

• Nate "Second Measure" Birkholz, Lead Producer: Issue 17: Dark Mirror
• Jesse "Ghost Falcon" Caceres, Business Manager: Issue 18: Shades of Gray (the Going Rogue expansion)
• Tim "Black Scorpion" Sweeney, Systems Designer: Issue 20: Incarnates
• Joe "Hero 1" Morrisey, Senior Designer: Issue 14: Mission Architect
• Vince "The Dark Watcher" D'Amelio, Principal Programmer: Issue 9: Breakthrough
• John "Protean" Hegner, Lead Missions Designer: Issue 18: Shades of Gray (the Going Rogue expansion)

For more details on why they picked these issues, check out the retrospective post.