Towards the tip of 2021, Atlus filed a lawsuit in New York District Court in opposition to gamers of the MMO Shin Megami Tensei Imagine: Online. The recreation has been “useless” for years, however the fan mission “ReImagine” has established fanmade servers to maintain it afloat, and the gamers operating these servers (Rekuiemu, ReImagine, and Comp_Hack) have just lately been summoned to seem in courtroom. 

It is not unusual for an internet recreation’s servers to be saved alive by passionate gamers, notably with MMOs. When that is the case, the sport’s developer simply lets the gamers do as they please, although some builders (reminiscent of Blizzard or Riot Games) have compelled these fan servers to close down by threatening authorized motion. 

Shin Megami Tensei Imagine: Online launched in Japan in 2007 and North America the next yr. Management of the sport modified palms within the west, and its North American service led to 2014. Japan service would finish two years later., and the “ReImagine” mission revived the defunct recreation in 2020.

Atlus’ courtroom paperwork focus solely on Comp_Hack and Rekuiemu, as ReImagine shut down its server and web site voluntarily. Atlus accuses the 2 servers of violating copyright regulation, by “creating and working an actual copy” of Imagine Online’s unique web site. The two teams had been additionally accused of making a “server emulator” that emulated the unique recreation and let gamers play the sport on-line.  

Rekuiemu, and its Discord server, have additionally reportedly been taken down.

“Atlus seeks injunctive reduction to cease Defendants’ illegal acts
complained of herein,” the paperwork proceed. “Atlus additionally seeks financial reduction (as much as $25,000 per violation) in an quantity adequate to compensate it
for its loss, an accounting and award of Defendants’ whole income flowing from their infringing
actions.”

It feels like an open-and-shut case, nonetheless in 2018, the Library of Congress dominated that online game historians can circumvent the DMCA to protect on-line video games. That mentioned, the ruling did not cowl emulators, which provides some issues to the case.  

I’m devastated to know that Imagine is now offline completely.
It was one in all my video games of the Pandemics, the fanbase was passionate, and it now kinda walks to grow to be misplaced media.
It is a tragic chapter for the Megaten fanbase. But thanks Re:Imagine crew for all you could have carried out! https://t.co/S8ejtxHul8 pic.twitter.com/vp2lLwx8Cs

— Devil Summoner Blaze #SoulHackers2 (@LiusBlaze) September 26, 2022