A new adventure is about to begin in an undiscovered land.

During the Sword Art Online: The Movie Special Stage, held on March 13, 2016, as part of the 2016 Dengeki Bunko Spring Festival, the latest news on Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale was revealed.

To start things off, emcee Kazuma Miki (Dengeki Bunko Editing Dept.) and Rina Hidaka (Silica) took the stage. They were later joined onstage by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Kirito), original creator Reki Kawahara, and staff member Shingo Adachi (Character Design), who spoke at length about the upcoming film.

This was the first event since the 2015 Dengeki Bunko Autumn Festival featuring cast members, animation staff members, and the original creator, all onstage at the same time. They were greeted by the audience with raucous cheers and applause.

When Mr. Miki announced, “Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale will open in 2017,” the audience erupted in even more cheers. That was when Ms. Hidaka asked, “This Ordinal Scale in the subtitle…could that be a new game?” Mr. Miki replied, “Perceptive of you. I’m impressed that you caught that. Well, that’s exactly why I asked you to be the emcee today.”

With abec’s key visual projected onscreen behind him, Mr. Miki then began to explain the concept of the new game, Ordinal Scale, and the new device it’s controlled by – the Augma.