Asheron's Call (AC) was a fantasy MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) for Microsoft Windows PCs, developed and published by Turbine Entertainment Software. Though it was developed by the Turbine team (with Microsoft's extensive assistance), it was published as a Microsoft title until 2004. The game was set on the island continent of Dereth and several surrounding smaller islands and archipelagos on the fictional planet of Auberean. The game was played in a large seamless 3D virtual world which could host thousands of players' characters (or avatars) at a time. Released on November 2, 1999, it was the third major MMORPG to be released, and was developed at the same time as those earlier games: Ultima Online and EverQuest. After initial success, its subscription numbers dropped as newer MMORPGs moved into the market. Its host servers remained online for over 17 years after the game's original launch. It was announced on December 20, 2016, that Asheron's Call would close all its servers on January 31, 2017. Despite several attempts by the community to purchase or lease the intellectual property (IP) for the game, it closed at 12 EST.