MMOs like Star Wars Galaxies are often remembered as being beloved classics that are appreciated after their time. Fans tend to keep plenty of these classic MMOs alive with fan projects, though it appears The Matrix Online hasn't quite had the same treatment as fans are still working to crack the game's code. The Matrix Online may be one of the more underrated MMOs out there, especially considering that the game was completely canon to The Matrix.
The directors of The Matrix, The Wachowskis, gave the game their blessing as an official continuation and were consultants for the first 9 chapters of the MMO's original story. With the MMO's entire story being completely canon to films, fans clearly appreciated the ability to explore the universe in a world following the trilogy, where Neo was rumored to be nearing a resurrection. The Matrix Online has a big cult following from fans who remember it fondly for a lot of reasons, yet the game shut down only four years after it was released.
Launching in 2005, The Matrix Online had players take on the role of a recently freed "redpill" who would join one of the three different major factions in the game. The plot revolved around the nebulous state of The One, as Morpheus campaigned for the return of Neo's remains, while the Machines would only say his body was not recycled. Players would complete missions for their respective factions while doing combat with NPCs. Combat wasn't really why anyone was there, though; the missions and ongoing story were what really drew dedicated fans to The Matrix Online.
The Matrix Online was able to build a solid player base up until 2009 when the order came down from Sony Online Entertainment to shut down the game's servers due to subscription numbers being too low to justify keeping the servers running, with some reports indicating fewer than 500 active players around the time the servers shut down. While there's a lot of things people enjoyed about The Matrix Online, that doesn't change the game's incredibly lacking number of active players. With only 500 active players around the time of the game's closure, it's clear that even though the game's fans were dedicated and passionate, there simply were not enough to keep the game alive.
Part of why fans left the game could be due to a change in developers. Partway through The Matrix Online's run, Sony Online Entertainment took over development from Monolith Productions. This change in devs lead to a few planned features being dropped, such as the live event team that was meant to run in-game events that would further the story. While there still were live events under Sony Online Entertainment's watch, they were much smaller in scale.
The change in developers may have also caused some issues with different game mechanics not exactly working together. The combat system didn't really work all too well with PVP, as Matrix Online's combat was designed with massive gun battles and bullet time fights with NPCs in mind. Former players have described The Matrix Online's combat as being more about numbers rather than skill. As long as players could out-number their opponents, they'd often come out on top in the game's real-time combat system.
There has been a pretty serious effort from dedicated fans to bring back The Matrix Online, though it appears efforts to reverse-engineer the game's code have been slow. Still, the existence of any kind of fan revival project is a testament to how much fans loved the original game and the expanded Matrix story it told. The well-loved canon story of The Matrix Online could even have some impact on the upcoming new Matrix film.