Bandai Namco Games announced that its PC-based MMORPG Tales of Eternia Online will go offline on March 31st. While the company did not cite any reasons for the decision, Japanese media reports point out the obvious reason, namely a declining number of accounts. Since no other company has publically announced an interest in taking over the game's administration, Tales of Eternia Online's servers will be shut down only year after the game had entered commercial service in March 2006. Users with an existing account will be able to play the game for free during its final month of service. Those who have paid their monthly usage fees up to January 29th can play the game for free during the month of February.

Tales of Eternia Online is not the first MMORPG to be shut down after a rather short period of time in Japan. Square Enix transferred the administration of the Japanese version of EverQuest II and Fantasy Earth: Ring of Dominion (now: Fantasy Earth Zero) to Sony Online Entertainment and GamePot, respectively.

• Dengeki Online