‘Sword Art Online’ News & Update: Novel Series Now Has Online Virtual Reality Game

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By Jonnalyn Cortez , Parent Herald Feb 24, 01:16 am

After seven years of being a hit Japanese light novel series, "Sword Art Online," is finally going to have an online gaming adaptation. IBM sponsored the "Sword Art Online The Beginning Project" with the help from Bandai Namco, Aniplex and Kadokawa.

According to Forbes, the International Business Machines Corporation is going to use a combination of its SoftLayer cloud computing setup and cognitive computing. And from the virtual reality angle, the players will use real body motion to control the movements of the game.

Also, it has been known that the world and game of "Sword Art Online" are quite hard to build in the modern technology making it the most "ambitious target" IBM Japan will build. Moreover, the said project is now looking for over 200 people for a game test in Tokyo starting on March 18 to March 20, Kotaku reported.

The applicants will all wear VR headgear and will come out in the virtual reality space as 3D scanned avatars. These partakers will turn their whole bodies into their own controllers instead of using the common gamepad.

Engadget added that the creator of "Sword Art Online" said that "The Beginning" project will give a different kind of gaming experience compared to any other game. They said it can support both HTC Vive and Oculus Rift and the coming "alpha test" will show the "real-world version" of the game.

"Something completely foreign from any other video game experience," and Reki Kawahara said after trying out the trial game of the project, Siliconera noted. "By getting to experience being chased by a monster, I hope people will wonder more about the future of virtual reality gaming."

Meanwhile, "Sword Art Online" started in 2009 as a novel series later adapted into a manga and anime. The story revolves "in the near future, which saw the massively multiplayer online virtual reality game is hacked so its denizens are trapped within it." The characters have to fight every obstacle to find their freedom.