Dragon Ball Online (officially abbreviated as DBO) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game being developed simultaneously in Japan and South Korea by NTL, set in the Dragon Ball universe, first introduced by the Dragon Ball Japanese manga in 1984. Dragon Ball Online takes place on Earth, 216 years after the events at the conclusion of the Dragon Ball manga series. A beta testing of Dragon Ball Online was initially announced to begin in South Korea, during the summer of 2007, though development was delayed by nearly a year, and it is currently scheduled to go live in Korea by the end of 2008, and in Japan in 2009 . A North American release has not yet been announced, though in a press conference held in South Korea on February 14th, 2008, NTL expressed interest in releasing the game to a worldwide audience.