Atlus has officially sent a lawsuit to two groups who were running fan servers of the game Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine (also known as SMT: Imagine), a former MMO based on the long running Shin Megami Tensei franchise.

The complaint, which was first filed back on December 2021, alleges 2 groups violated US copyright law by creating an “exact copy” of the game, distributing it for free, while also operating a private game server without permission from the company.

In this lawsuit one group, COMP_hack, is accused of creating the SMT: Imagine fan servers along with profiting off this content while in violation of copyright law. Atlus is asking they shut down the server to the game, along with its website and GitHub files. They’ve also asked the defendants to provide monetary relief for damages.

Interestingly, another SMT: Imagine fan server, known as ReImagine, is not a part of this lawsuit. Despite this, the fan server’s website has since been taken down – likely due to fears from this lawsuit.

SMT: Imagine was an MMORPG which launched for Japan way back in 2007, where it would later come out to the US 2 years later. While the western servers would be shut down in 2014, Japan’s would continue running until its eventual end in 2016.

In 2020, the fan server was created as an unmodified version of the original SMT: Imagine game. Registering required no money spent, and it worked largely as it did when the game’s servers were still running.