Persona developer Atlus is suing the fans who resurrected the abandoned Shin Megami Tensei MMO

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Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine has officially been gone for six years now

Shin Megami Tensei 5
(Image credit: Atlus)

Persona developer Atlus is in the process of suing a fan who unofficially resurrected the Shin Megami Tensei MMO through the use of private servers.

As spotted by @MarshSMT on Twitter, Atlus is suing for copyright infringement after a fan (operating as Rekuiemu Games) hosted their own servers on the MMORPG Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine - which was shut down in 2016. As detailed in the court documents: "In blatant violation of U.S. copyright law, Defendants—by their own admission and without any authorization—have decided to "resurrect" the Imagine Game" which is believed to have started around August - December 2020.

The document continues: "They have done this by creating and operating an exact copy of the original website used by Atlus to distribute the Imagine Game", "creating and distributing an exact or nearly exact copy of the Imagine Game which users can download from the Infringing Website", and "creating and distributing an unauthorized web server [..] that emulates the original game server used by Atlus and that enables users to publicly display and play the Infringing Game online with other players." 

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According to the documents, the lawsuit was originally filed back in December 2021 but has regularly been updated right up to today, September 26, 2022. If the lawsuit is successful, Atlus is asking for the website to be shut down and for the player running the server to pay up to $25,000 per violation in damages, as revealed in the court documents. This is due to the defendants' actions reportedly causing - "and will continue to cause" - "irreparable damage to Atlus unless restrained by this court." 

If you didn't know, Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine originally launched back in 2007 and saw players roam around a post-apocalyptic Tokyo as they take control of a 'Demon Buster' whilst exploring different locations, taking on quests, upgrading items and weapons, and all of the others things you can usually do in an MMORPG.

If you're now looking for a new game to get stuck into, take a look at our list of the best MMORPGs. 

Hope Bellingham
Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.