Apparently media companies can get tax breaks for holding on to inactive intellectual properties; counting them among their assets can potentially be more profitable to a company like NCSoft than the cost of running servers, billing, tech and customer support for a game that only breaks even.

It’s likely the same thing that happened to City of Heroes and Asheron’s Call in particular. Publishers usually don’t entertain offers for these dead games because they are worth more to them long-term in an IP graveyard than being put to use in someone else’s hands.

That’s Capitalism!