In what is surely a major blow to anyone who ever wanted to play a massively multiplayer game that would call them during dinner and leave threatening messages on their voice mail, Electronic Arts has announced that Majestic is shutting down (thanks RayMan). Here's the brief announcement posted to the game's official site:

After April 30, 2002, Majestic will no longer be in service. While the game was a huge critical success, it was not as popular with players. Consequently, EA has decided to discontinue the Majestic service in order to focus resources on new, more popular content. The Majestic Team is extremely proud to have contributed to one of the most creative, innovative and critically acclaimed games in history.

Players may play through their game until April 30th. Majestic puzzles and gameplay can be completed in just under two months, so it is possible to finish Majestic before the service ends on April 30th.

Be sure to play Majestic daily and complete each day's activities in order to complete Majestic before April 30th. If you are a current Majestic player, please check the email associated with your Majestic game account for an important notice regarding this change to your service. We hope you've enjoyed Majestic as much as we have -- watch for great new games from EA.

I guess the grand vision of games that would be played exclusively by fax, cell-phone and IM presented by AOL's Bob Pitman at E3 a few years back really was as far-fetched and impractical as it sounded at the time.