Microsoft held a conference today at the Tokyo International Forum, and at this event, Atlus announced the development of Shin Megami Tensei Online for the X-Box. The title, originally rumoured to be under development for the PlayStation2, will be produced by Kouji Okada, who has worked on a number of other titles in the series. This marks the first time the series will feature an online title, and although the games gained the most notoriety from the spinoff series, Persona in the west, Japanese fan support is much stronger, and the game's appearance on the X-Box may help the console to survive in Japan, where its outlook is currently somewhat questionable.
Few details were announced about the game itself, other than a few technical snippets of information. For one thing,
Shin Megami Tensei Online will be playable both online and offline, and it will also feature voice recognition, and be compatible with broadband connections. Additionally, it will also be exclusive to the X-Box. No release date was announced for the title; Microsoft also announced the console itself will be released in Japan on February 22nd, 2002, so that is the very earliest it could appear. A North American release was not confirmed.
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