Meridian 59

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Meridian 59
Developer(s)	Archetype Interactive (1996) Near Death Studios (2002) Open-source (2012–)
Publisher(s)	The 3DO Company (1996–2000) Near Death Studios (2002–2010)
Director(s)	Charles Sellers
Producer(s)	John Hanke
Designer(s)	Mike Sellers
Writer(s)	Kevin R. O'Hara
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	October 7, 1996
Genre(s)	MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Meridian 59 is a 1996 video game developed by Archetype Interactive and published by The 3DO Company. It was the first 3D graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) and one of the longest running original online role-playing games. The development team included John Hanke, who later founded Niantic, Inc. and codeveloped Google Earth and Pokémon Go.

The game was launched online in an early form on December 15, 1995, and released commercially on October 7, 1996, with a flat-rate monthly subscription. Meridian 59 was later released as open source software,^[1] run by original developers Andrew Kirmse and Chris Kirmse.