The Matrix Online was an MMORPG set in the fictional universe of The Matrix films and featuring characters from the series. Matrix style combat, including bullet time and wire-fu tricks were integral to the game's combat. Players could side with one of the major factions (Zionist Humans, Exiles, or Machines) and join in the ongoing war against the other two. Missions in The Matrix Online involve such Matrix-like activities as hacking, lock-picking and disabling security devices. When the game began, it was the intention of the developers to have frequent cinematics (with story contributions from Paul Chadwick) that served as canonical continuation of the story of The Matrix. A comprehensive live events team portrayed characters from the films in-game and serverwide events were held. Major occurrences such as the death of Morpheus were a part of in-game lore and the basis for in-game quest arcs and server events.

After the game was transferred to Sony Online Entertainment in 2005, these diminished in number, although a volunteer live events group emerged for a while, working with the dev team to play out ongoing stories. The cinematics were eventually replaced by storyboards, updates became irregular, and player population dropped. In May 2009, SOE announced that MxO would close as of 7/31/2009. The game ended on that date with a giant party, leaving loose ends and storylines in the last mission chapters unresolved.