Atlus announces new MMORPG

TOKYO--Atlus is bringing its Megami Tensei series to the PC as an online game. The company today announced that it will launch a new massively multiplayer online role-playing game, titled Shin Megami Tensei Online: Imagine, in Japan within the year. It will be Atlus' first online game for the PC.

Shin Megami Tensei Online: Imagine will be an action RPG that is distinctly influenced by the Megami Tensei series. Players will start out by creating their characters and meeting up with other players in a variety of gaming modes. The basic game is a standard RPG mode, where the player adventures through the game alone or with other players to take on various missions together, and teams can also fight each other in a real-time strategy mode. Unlike many other MMORPGs, Shin Megami Tensei Online will not divide players into separate worlds on different servers, so all the players in the game will be able to communicate, play together, and join user-created guilds.

The game's server infrastructure, game service, and billing system will all be operated by ISAO, a network solutions company that was a subsidiary of Sega until three years ago. Atlus will release more details on Shin Megami Tensei Online: Imagine on its official Web site, which currently shows only a timer counting down to midnight on July 24.