{"id":65788,"date":"2026-04-24T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=65788"},"modified":"2026-04-24T18:05:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T09:05:43","slug":"live-service-fantasy-mmorpg-salvaged-by-japanese-players-who-established-their-own-company-to-take-over-operational-rights-after-the-titles-end-of-service-announcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/live-service-fantasy-mmorpg-salvaged-by-japanese-players-who-established-their-own-company-to-take-over-operational-rights-after-the-titles-end-of-service-announcement\/","title":{"rendered":"Live-service fantasy MMORPG salvaged by Japanese players who established their own company to take over operational rights after the title\u2019s end-of-service announcement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Metap, developer of free-to-play NFT-based RPG Gensokishi Online <\/strong>(the Web3-powered successor of the classic MMORPG Elemental Knights Online), reported<\/a> on April 21 that it\u2019s planning to transfer operational rights to Japanese company Hanabitei. This comes just two months after Metap announced<\/a> that it would shut down the game\u2019s servers on April 30 amidst financial difficulties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it\u2019s nothing new in the industry to see companies buying out troubled live-service games, what\u2019s peculiar about this case is that Hanabitei is a venture established entirely by fans in order to keep the game alive. Known under the usernames Kurokage and Alamode, the two players and members of the in-game guild \u201cHanabitei\u201d are currently taking legal steps to register their company in preparation for inheriting the operational rights to Gensokishi Online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Gensokishi<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As reported by Famitsu<\/a>, Metap and Hanabitei are currently in discussion towards forming a formal contract, which is scheduled to be signed by early May. After the contract has been signed, development will kick off according to a newly devised reboot plan made to improve operational costs and revenue. If everything goes smoothly, the game is expected to re-launch under Hanabitei sometimes between August and September this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back when the shutdown of the game was announced in February, Metap explained that they had been looking for means to transfer operational rights to a third party or migrate to another owner. According to the company, they settled on signing a contract with Hanabitei because, \u201cconsidering [Kurokage and Alamode\u2019s] past contributions and achievements within the game, [\u2026] they are a reliable and ideal partner for the operational transfer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related articles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaking it technically work and making it actually enjoyable as a game are different things.\u201d Japanese\u00a0devs\u00a0weigh in on why retrofitting live-service games with offline support is harder than gamers think\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danganronpa creator says live-service games should offer players a genuine conclusion before ending services<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gensokishi Online players establish their own company in order to take over operational rights after the title ends services. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":65792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-65788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nLive-service fantasy MMORPG salvaged by Japanese players who established their own company to take over operational rights after the title\u2019s end-of-service announcement - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gensokishi Online players establish their own company in order to take over operational rights after the title ends services.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/live-service-fantasy-mmorpg-salvaged-by-japanese-players-who-established-their-own-company-to-take-over-operational-rights-after-the-titles-end-of-service-announcement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Live-service fantasy MMORPG salvaged by Japanese players who established their own company to take over operational rights after the title\u2019s end-of-service announcement - 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