Microsoft announced the development of "True Fantasy Live Online" - its first mass online role-playing game for its Xbox console.

The game has been actively promoted in Japan since March 2002 as a revolutionary game in which "thousands" of people could participate at once. The game was intended for the Japanese market and its release had been promised for the end of the year, having been postponed twice before.

"True Fantasy" would have been the first so-called Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) software for Microsoft's Xbox, of which some 14 million consoles have been sold worldwide.

Such mass participation games allow players to interact as characters in a fantasy universe in which they can engage in various occupations, fight battles or just live regular lives.

But the world's first-ever MMORPG for consoles has already been Final Fantasy XI launched for PS2 in Japan.