Up until now, Japan's bishoujo game industry has focused primarily on single-player, solitary affairs. Mainly because polishing one's meat flute to pictures of anime girls with pixellated genitalia and then crying oneself to sleep is inherently a solo experience. It looks like things might be changing soon, though, as several big names in the industry of making you grow unheathily attached to drawn images have announced a new MMO project called ai Sp@ce.

The brainchild of five different companies - Visual Art's, Circus, Omegavision, Headlock, and Dwango - ai sp@ce lets players enter a virtual world where they can interact with heroines from popular gal games like Clannad, Da Capo II, and Shuffle!. Players will be able to create their own avatars for use in-game, and they can explore and venture to different "islands" that represent the various franchises. A hub island, modelled after the nerd mecca of Akihabara, will serve as a player gathering spot.

Perhaps the game's biggest selling point (or nail in the coffin, depending on your POV on this sort of thing) is the "chara-doll" system.Besides creating their avatar character, players will be able to select a companion girl to live with them. The player can buy and decorate the couple's living space, dress their virtual girlfriend in a variety of collected and bought outfits, and "teach" them various actions. The developers are claiming that each doll will develop its own personality based on the users' actions - we'll see if that actually comes to pass. 

The real question on everyone's mind, however: Will there be porn? I actually doubt it, given the multiplayer nature of the game and the fact that all of the games featured have censored, sex-excised adaptations available. I have no doubt that clever modders and hackers with way too much time on their hands will find some way around this, though!

And to answer another question before it gets asked: Chance of Western release = nil. Sorry to break it to you, but it's best not to get your hopes up.