development issues. GungHo would remain quiet on Grandia Onlines progress until early 2007, when Game Arts announced that the title had been sold by GungHo to online software producer Online Game Revolution Fund Number 1 for ¥2.6 billion, and that development would continue under the game's new name, Grandia Zero. Game Arts would later re-acquire the game's production rights some time later, as well as return the game to its original title, yet development activities remained undisclosed for several months. During this period, industry rumors began to surface that the game may have been cancelled. In April 2009, news of Grandia Onlines progress was finally made public, with the launch of an official countdown website that opened on April 21, revealing that the game was not only still being produced, but that a new open beta test would be launched the following July. To celebrate the occasion, Game Arts announced they would be re-releasing the original Grandia on Sony's PlayStation Network download service, as well host a limited, 60-person public test period for a demo of the game the following May in Tokyo's Akihabara district. The game utilized the BigWorld Technology Suite, which was previously used in GungHo's Hokuto no Ken Online, and "promise[d] a development solution specifically for scalable next-gen MMOs and virtual worlds." The company had planned to release the game commercially by the end of Q2 2009, with a public beta test instead pushed back to July and the launch version arriving in August. The game operated for three years until it was eventually shut down on September 28, 2012. Audio Background music for Grandia Online was written by series veteran Noriyuki Iwadare, the composer for all previous Grandia titles. The game also featured voice acting during certain story sequences that the player would encounter during play, which were provided by anime and video game actors including Kikuko Inoue, who reprises her role as Liete from the first Grandia. Player characters were also voiced, with sound clips used during combat and certain emotes, and varied by the character's race and gender. Grandia Onlines official theme song, "Earth Trip" by Minami Kuribayashi, was released as a single in July 2009, alongside a limited edition version that contains a code which could be redeemed for special in-game items. References 2009 video games Products and services discontinued in 2012 Free-to-play video games Online Inactive massively multiplayer online games Japan-exclusive video