The Matrix Online

Chapters

The first chapter of The Matrix Online saw Morpheus killed by a mysterious masked assassin (Cinematic 1.3). This moment, designed to be a shocking turn of events for players familiar with the films, also unraveled the truce between humans and the Machines (which, from a story perspective, opened up combat between the two sides within the game).

The immediate chapters following gave players from all three factions their own reasons to find the assassin and solve this mystery.

Server development and shutdown

On August 2, 2005, Sony Online Entertainment merged the nine worlds into three new worlds, due to the low level of population density. One world was hostile while the other two ran under normal PvP rules. Sony had acquired the game in June 2005 when Monolith pulled out of the project and laid off 80 employees. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment transferred the game to Sony, and Sony hired 25 of the employees who had been let go.

Sega of America continued to manage distribution, while Warner still oversaw content development. Sony held the operational involvement. Monolith was not the first company to withdraw involvement from the property, Ubisoft did the same in early 2004. The game ran until 31st July 2009. After a spectacular finale that lasted a week, the servers were closed.

Awards

• GameSpy
  • 2005 – Biggest Disappointment of the Year (PC)

Information also contributed by BuirningStickMan