Massively have a short article and some screens of MxO's last day.

Like we said in our article before, "...until everyone's RSI is smashed into a tiny, tiny ball." Now you see that we really weren't joking about that.

But we were in The Matrix Online for the final hours as well, and we managed to get some great screenshots from the end of the game. There were explosions, lightning bolts, oddly colored skies until finally.... in the last few hours... it became beautiful again. The green skies were rolled back in favor of a blue sky tinged with hints of red. Then, of course, we all got our plugs pulled and ended up smashed into... well... you know.

If you're interested in how it all looked before everything crashed, check out what we got to see during our final moments!

Matrix Online to be no more this summer according to Gamespot.

Now the long journey of the Matrix Online has come to an end. A post on the game’s forums yesterday evening has revealed the title is to be unplugged on July 31, after four years online. The cancellation of the game echoes the fate of many other MMOGs, including the six-years-in development Tabula Rasa, which launched in 2007 after several delays and barely made it 13 months, and Namco Bandai's Hellgate: London, which suffered from a multitude of bugs and also closed its doors after a year.

The Matrix Online team have promised an "end-of-the-world event" before the game closes shop, allowing players to "revisit all the things that make MxO the memorable experience it is."

Patch notes can be found here.

The Matrix Online is 3 years old it seems and Agent Smith returns today.

It's true – in honor of the game's three year anniversary, the hugely popular 'Smith Virus' will return to The Matrix Online from March 20th until April 3rd. Remember last year when the Oracle said that it was safe to say we had not seen the last of Agent Smith? Well, the Oracle never lies! It appears that Smith's insidious viral code has found a way to free itself and circulate once again…

It's been a while since we've featured any news from the world of The Matrix Online, but a new producer's letter fills the gap quite nicely.

Hey everyone. It's been a long time since I've put "fingers to keyboard" to talk to The Matrix Online community-not that Raijinn hasn't been bugging me about that. I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that I've been neck-deep in The Agency since I started working on it in April-there's a lot to be done. And since the guys on MxO are pros at keeping the game going, I don't feel the need to constantly oversee what they're doing. However, I'm way overdue for sending out an update from my perspective.

Most of what "keeping the game going" means is moving the storyline along. This has always been the most important post-launch element for The Matrix Online and continues to be the case. While we've occasionally made some larger changes, such as the combat revision, most of development has been about the storyline. Every six weeks there are new missions for each Organization and daily events that carry on the plot. With few exceptions, we've been on that schedule for about a year-and-a-half now.

With that in mind, we actually have a bunch of updates coming in the next couple months.

A new developer journal recapping Subchapter 6.3 of The Matrix Online is available at WarCry.

Subchapter 6.3 of The Matrix Online story began with the abduction of the Oracle's young ward, Sati, by the General, an old military program exiled from the Machine mainframes. The General's commando programs deployed across the city, and may have killed Seraph, who was last seen plunging into the river after falling from a commando helicopter as he tried to rescue Sati from their clutches. (As seen in the Subchapter 6.3 Cinematic.)
After several weeks, it became clear that the General had a new type of commando program at his disposal: elite troops equipped with synthetic black bodysuits allowing them to escape detection by standard code scans.
Sati's absence soon began to cause problems with weather patterns in the Matrix. Some fear that unless she is returned soon, the simulation's weather will spiral out of control.

It's been a little while since we has any real news on The Matrix Online but WarCry has a dev journal from "Rarebit", writing about the story:

Early in the development of The Matrix Online (MxO), the powers behind the game decided that it would do something significantly different than most other commercial massively multiplayer online games: It would tell a single, continuing story--the story of the Matrix. It would pick up right after the end of the third Matrix film and continue to evolve the exciting world and characters that had proven so popular in the Matrix movie trilogy.

MMORPG.com takes another look at The Matrix Online.

The name of the game is Matrix Online, world of amazing fights and true heroics. Where everyone can be a hero and leap from building to building in a single fluid leap, fight agents with one hand tied behind your back and look stunningly stylish while you do it. The possibilities seem limitless.

Or so you would think.

Buddy Keys
Let's start off with a quick note on the "buddy key" issues. There have been some reports of players who were signed up for emails from SOE not getting buddy keys. At this time, I don't know whether we can verify this or not, but we're looking into it. Given how many folks have been asking for more, we're certainly interested in making sure they're available.

Forum Maintenance Periods
Most of the recent forum maintenacne periods have been to work on backend/database issues to resolve some of the stability problems. When we have updates that change the functionality of the forums, I'll post those notes in the announcements.

Update 46 Coming
The team is working hard on finishing up Update 46. This is mostly a content update, as we move in to Subchapter 5.3 (cinematic and missions). I'll have more details on fixes and changes next week.

I think it's safe to say that everyone here at SOE considers the first-ever Block Party an overwhelming success. Even in the midst of triple-digit temperatures, lots of community members came out to hob-nob with the teams and other players.

This, by far, has been my favorite show of the year. Unlike Fan Faire and E3, this wasn't all about showing off The Matrix Online--it was about hanging out with players and having fun. There were a few moments I felt guilty stepping away from the demo, but that was compensated for by being able to chat with folks who play the game.

Bug Fixes

* Items can be emailed from the Code Archive once again.
* Machine and Merovingian standard missions give the proper rep penalties when done.
* The Merovingian Archive chapter 1-4 reward, the Demon Army Trench, now has much sharper textures.
* Fixed "Grey" typo in Machine 1.3.4.
* Bug causing Data Node tapping sounds to loop repeatedly has been fixed.
* Hyper Speed no longer creates a flashing yellow sprite on the user's feet.

Update 45 Issues
For anyone who hasn't visited the forums or already run into them in game, let's go over the issues introduced in Update 45.

Emailing Items not Working
Apparently we changed something the wrong way in trying to allow players to email themselves non-tradable and singleton items. Now, items can't be emailed at all, only intermittently, or only the wrong types can be. We're not sure what exactly happened, as testing was fine, but we're working on a fix.

Also, trying to email an item from the Loading Area may result in a client crash. Until we fix this problem, please avoid emailing items from the Loading Area.

Update 45 is scheduled for release the morning of Thursday, July 13, 2006.
Featured Changes

The Matrix Online Story Continues in Episode 5.2!
The 5.2 Storyline missions and cinematic are now available in game.
The first 5.2 critical mission will be available as soon as the patch is live. The remaining four missions will roll out each following Thursday (7/20, 7/27, 8/4, 8/11)at 1:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time (0800 hours GMT).

Changes to Spy Tree abilities
The following Abilities have had these changes applied to improve balance (Note: Other effects for these Abilities still apply):

Neuro Dart
Sneak Movement downgrade: -50% (was -75%)
Invisibility Movement downgrade: -50% (was -75%)
Movement Speed downgrade: -50% (was -75%)
Force Combat downgrade: -10% for 30 seconds

"Requiem" by Sykin and Beachhead:
http://mxoboards.station.sony.com/matrix/board/message?board.id=generalsyntax&message.id=16780

"EPN" by Beachhead:
http://mxoboards.station.sony.com/matrix/board/message?board.id=generalsyntax&message.id=16600

This Week in the Matrix podcast #8:
http://mxoboards.station.sony.com/matrix/board/message?board.id=general&message.id=121586

Crew and Faction Issues
We're continuing to work on the crew and faction issues some of you have been experiencing. We haven't nailed down the root cause yet, but continue to look into the problem. If you are experiencing problems with your crew and/or faction loading, do not delete your crew or faction! Send in a /ccr reporting what exactly you're seeing, include all character names having the problem, and any other significant details you have. Every bit of information you give us can help us resolve the problem.