NCSoft has today confirmed that participants of its MMORPG City of Heroes will able to utilise the PvP feature in the next update called Issue 4: Colosseum. The update comes on the first anniversary of the game’s release in the USA and the three month anniversary in the UK, and is free of charge for subscribers.

The PvP option, which will allow gamers to battle it out head to head in several arenas in Galaxy City, Talos Island and Peregrine Island is open to all players and will also include a ranking system for players to gain recognition across the whole of Paragon City. Defeats in the arenas won’t affect the characters other providing them with much needed battle experience, and players will also be able to set up matches against various battle criteria.

Commenting on the addition of PvP to the game, Jack Emmert, City of Heroes Lead Designer and Creative Director for Cryptic Studios said "PVP has been a highly requested option, but until now City of Heroes has been only player-versus-environment style, so this opens up a whole new opportunity for our community…I believe PVP will supplement the game while not detracting from City of Heroes' missions or story arcs. I see the PVP arenas as a way for players to hone their skills and as a change of pace from arresting villains."

The update will include a few other changes, including the Character Customisation Tool that will now allow gamers to select one of several Manga style costumes and even allow for body and face scaling. The new look customisation will be available for all new characters in the game, although NCSoft add that current characters can be updated with a quick visit to the tailor shop.

Regarding the customisation tweaks Mr Emmert explained that "We took a costume customisation tool that offered an almost unlimited number of costume options and added to it by geometric proportions…One of the achievements we are most proud of is that players know that they can play City of Heroes and may never see another player with the same costume. The updating of custom options also expands our ability to reach more players who are fans of Anime or Manga."

We’ll have more on City of Heroes shortly...