The .hack series was first released as the game .hack//Infection on the PS2 in Japan on June 20, 2002. CyberConnect2 is celebrating the series’ 20th anniversary with a new trailer and announced an upcoming .hack 20th-anniversary exhibit! The exhibit will be held from August 9 to August 28, 2022, so look forward to more images and information about the exhibit then!
The series will also be bringing back special merch including the popular acrylic keychains, material books, art books, and a new 20th-anniversary art and sound collection, available on the CC2 International store!
The .hack series is a multimedia franchise spanning several years of games, anime, manga, and novels, and tells the story of a young high school student Kite unraveling the mystery behind the game “The World”, uncovering a great conspiracy, and dark forces behind the scenes.
▍.hack 20th-Anniversary Merchandise
For a limited time only, the .hack series acrylic keychains will be making a return! Initially released in 2018 only to be immediately sold out, your chance to pick up all four popular Acrylic keychains is back! Products can be pre-ordered from the CC2 International store.
A single keychain can be purchased for JPY$660, while a set of all four can be purchased at JPY$2640.
▍Returning Merchandise on Sale
On the CC2 International store page, 30 items related to the series will now be available for a 25% discount! Brand new products have also been added to the store, such as a collection of setting materials for the series in bulk! All three of these books can be purchased at JPY$6,500, 38% off from their original asking price of JPY$10,496.
Special ebooks published by CyberConnect 2 will also be on sale for a limited time, with all items at a 20% discount! Certain sold-out books such as the Guilty Dragon Visual Works series are back as digital copies!
The sale period for some of these items such as the digital books will end on July 4, 2022.
▍20th Anniversary Artbook and CDs
A brand new artbook and audio CD collection will be made available in December 2022! Check out the history of the series with illustrations by Seiichiro Hosokawa, and an original sound collection featuring the group LieN, CyberConnect2’s own music group with a collection of the series’ best songs including “.hack// GU”! These songs will be available in three albums.
▍About .hack
The series initially followed the story of Kite, a young high school student introduced to an MMORPG called “The World” by his friend Yasuhiko, who controls a character called Orca. After Orca was killed in The World, Yasuhiko mysteriously falls into a coma, an event not limited to only Yasuhiko. Desperate to understand what has happened, and to awaken his friend, Kite heads into The World to find out the cause, and unravels a growing conspiracy the likes of which he could never have imagined.
The .hack series has been adapted into multiple anime series, five novels, one manga series, and several games including the most recent release on Nintendo Switch, .hack//G.U. Last Recode, a remaster of the .hack//G.U. series of games from the PS2.
The .hack series was also adapted into a mobile game titled New World as a reboot to the series, but service for the game has ended since December 2016.
