Atlus is suing fans who hosted servers for a long-closed MMO called Shin Megami Tensei Imagine Online.
A lawsuit filed back in December 2021 was spotted by Twitter user Marsh. It seems that the defendants behind the unofficial fan servers have been summoned to a court appearance over the situation.
Imagine Online was an MMO that released on PC. The game took place in a post-apocalyptic version of Tokyo where players explored locations and completed quests while hunting for loot.
Back in 2007, the game launched in Japan and then launched in 2008 in North America and 2009 in Europe. On May 24, 2016, Atlus decided to shut down the servers of the game nine years after its launch.
In 2020, a group of fans decided to bring the MMO back to life and let fans play again. Rekuiemu and COMP_Hack worked under the name ReImagine, and create a launcher, website, and servers that mimicked Imagine Online. The lawsuit names Rekuiemu and COMP_Hack as the defendants.
Atlus states in the court documents that it believes that the fans “have caused and will continue to cause irreparable damage to Atlus unless restrained by this Court.” They are seeking the total shutdown of all websites and servers related to the fan servers and up to $25,000 per violation decided by the court.
Fan-made servers for closed MMOs are not uncommon, and have been seen many times before. Star Wars Galaxies, The Matrix Online, and many others all have active fan servers.
It is possible that Atlus’ arguments could be challenged by the protections introduced by the US Copyright Office in 2018. This allows archivists to break DRM security in order to preserve online games. Technically though, the protections are in relation to museums or archivists and not necessarily public emulators.
ReImagine reportedly released a statement on its Discord server, claiming that it was not aware of the court filing until recently and has chosen to close down its server. The tweet was made in response to VGC’s report on the situation.
The DZSH Group has not been able to verify if the message is true, as the Discord server and the website for ReImagine seem to have been taken offline.
The situation brings about strong questions surrounding game preservation, especially since online games with shut-down servers are essentially wiped from existence.
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Zainah Yousef
Zainah Yousef is the author of The Fallen Age Saga and specializes in gaming, social media advice, and reviews. She's been writing all her life and she probably won't stop anytime soon.
