Japanese MMO shut down a day after launch for allegedly ripping off Final Fantasy XI

Is Chaos Saga destined to go down as the shortest-lived released MMORPG in history?

This Japanese game that you never heard of launched on November 15th and was shut down less than 24 hours later by its operator. The service termination notice declined to give a reason but did apologize for the abrupt closure and offered a refund to players.

So what happened? Kotaku reports that Chaos Saga had liberally borrowed and copied characters from Final Fantasy XI, including a chocobo. While no official confirmation of the alleged copyright infringement was given as a reason behind the closure, it does seem likely after reviewing the many images that players recorded that a massive lawyer bomb caused the quick termination of the newborn fantasy MMO.