ATLUS Sues Fans Who Revived A Dead SMT Game

In yet another episode of companies don’t actually care about you, ATLUS has decided to sue a group of fans who had been working to revive the long-dead Shin Megami Tensei IMAGINE, which was an online-only SMT MMO made for PC. 

The game was first released in April 2007 in Japan followed by a late European and North American release in January 2009 and December 2009 respectively. The game was eventually shut down in 2014 in the west with the Japanese servers being shut down 2 years after in 2016. 

A group of dedicated fans had managed to revive the long-dead MMO through a private server. This project was called “ReIMAGINE”.

While we can’t access the website its description reads, “Get ready to experience Shin Megami Tensei IMAGINE Online once again with ReIMAGINE: A private server focused on community interaction and feedback.”

And ATLUS being as out of touch as they are and similar to a certain other company *cough* Nintendo *cough*. Decided to instead sue the fans that revived their long-dead MMO instead of…just about anything else. 

It has to be clarified that the fan project was non-profit as they refused to accept any money, while there was a premium currency that was solely earned through participating in the in-game events. So, it makes even less sense as to why this had to be done. 

While Atlus do have a legitimate case, it has to be noted that this is still a morally bankrupt thing to do to the players who are investing their time and energy into your franchise, and it remains that way for most of the companies that shut down or sue fan projects, yes again, I’m looking at you Nintendo. 

It also has to be noted that, unlike Nintendo who usually approaches these projects with a cease and desist, Atlus is going straight for the jugular and have decided to outright sue the fans for keeping their long-dead MMO title up and running for people to play in the future.

This means that not only are Atlus going to shut down the hard work of many fans to keep Atlus’s very own game running but are also going for their wallets while they’re at it.   

To end this on a relatively more positive note, fans are due for some good news to come in October as the release of Persona 5 Royal for the next-gen consoles and PC draws closer and closer to its October 21st release date. With rumors of a possible SMT, the V PC port is also somewhere on the horizon.

From what has been shown the new version will include all previously released DLC for the game as well as new improvements such as that sweet 60FPS and higher resolution. It has also been confirmed that players who bought the PS4 version of Persona 5 Royal will NOT get a free or even paid upgrade for the PS5 version.

Players who want to re-experience the story of Persona 5 Royal again with all the next-gen improvements will have to buy the game all over again at full price, which is as the fans love to say, a certified Atlus moment.