Role-playing Action .hack//Z.E.R.O. Announced. Project Has Been in Development for About Ten Years

It is not yet known when and on which platforms the game will be released.

CyberConnect2 has officially presented .hack//Z.E.R.O. — a new role-playing action game in the .hack universe. The project has been in development for about ten years. Specific platforms and release date have not yet been disclosed.

For the first time in the series' history, the studio has received permission from the copyright holder, Bandai Namco Entertainment, to independently manage the entire production cycle — from planning and development to release. Thus, .hack//Z.E.R.O. will become a completely independent publishing project by CyberConnect2.

The music for the game was written by the world-renowned violinist Taro Hakase. According to the developers, the project will combine the duality traditional for the series — the interweaving of the fantasy game world and reality — with modern audience expectations and "100% CyberConnect2 spirit". The game will be aimed at both long-time fans of the franchise and newcomers.

Studio CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama noted in an interview with Famitsu that the name .hack//Z.E.R.O. symbolizes a "reboot of .hack from scratch" and is not related to the .hack//ZERO series of light novels by Yokote Michiko.

The game's plot will unfold approximately ten years in the future and will once again be connected to the in-game MMORPG "The World", but this time more emphasis will be placed on events in the real world. If in previous installments the elements of reality were limited to email and browsers due to budget and publishing constraints, then in .hack//Z.E.R.O. there will be no such limitations.