The announcement was made by SOE’s community manager Daniel Myers who wrote:
“In May 2004, I embarked upon a journey. I decided to take the red pill in a big way—I became the online community lead for The Matrix Online. Later that year, many of you joined me as you jacked in for the first time. It was a brand new world—a vision of online games that didn’t involve elves, spaceships, or dragons. We became part of the Matrix storyline; living our own adventures in the world painted by the movies.”
He then went on to say that the game will be indeed closed, with the developers preparing a major goodbye event: an end of the world event that will see the game plugged off in style. Well, at least it’s better than simply shutting it down!