IBM Is Planning to Develop a Real Life Sword Art Online Project

Thanks to its Watson Cognitive Computing tech and SoftLayer cloud computing technologies that the company has access to, IBM is planning to develop a real life Sword Art Online project. Minus the correlation between dying in the game and dying in real life. However, according to the company, they wish to create a world that hosts a role-playing game just like the one depicted in the very popular anime series.

Coming as a massively multiplayer online role-playing game taking place in a purely virtual reality environment, the game would not only appease the hunger of avid gamers and fans of the long awaited concept of virtual reality gaming, but it will also be the first of its kind.

One of the best parts of it all is that it seems to actually be a recreation of the VR game that was depicted in the anime series as the IBM dubbed its project ‘Sword Art Online: The Beginning’. There is extremely little there is known about the project at the current time with more announcements due to be made between March 18^th and March 20^th, when there will be a Tokyo-based event on the theme. So far, all we know is that starting that date the alpha testing of the game will begin with no less than 208 testers situated in Tokyo.

While the game will be made to run on both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, it will also involve the use of a 3D body scanner that will translate your real life looks into the game to create your very own avatar. Not to mention that we won’t be using controllers to maneuver our way through the game – according to reports. Instead, motion controls are how people will be controlling their virtual reality characters. Something similar to the NerveGear VR from the anime show is still going to take a while to become reality; years the very least.

Sword Art Online: The Beginning will surely be different from what we’ve seen in the Japanese animation, but also be shockingly different from any previous gaming experience. The anime’s creator – who seems to also be involved with the development of the real life SAO Sword Art Online VRMMO – has personally stated that The Beginning will be ‘completely foreign’ from any other video game experience.

There is undoubted concern regarding a real life application that pretty much holds you physically immobile from the waist down in a world that promises a dozen more times of immersion levels that the video games of our day currently do. However, only time will be able to show us just how much reason for concern there really is.

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Roxanne Briean

I am a geek, a gamer and a writer. I have always been fascinated with the online community. At the moment I work as a full-time writer and study interior design. When I'm not scouring the net in search of interesting new gadgets and software I spend my time in MOBAs or drawing.