A promotional video screened at Bandai's booth during Tokyo Game Show 2001, held October 12-14, 2001.
The video was an early teaser for the project and combined in-game footage with live-action scenes, according to CyberConnect2's announcement:
To be honest, the presentation was mainly intended to introduce the title,
so there wasn't much gameplay footage yet.
(it featured a combination of in-game footage and live-action scenes)
On October 5, 2001, CyberConnect2 published an announcement on its official website teasing an upcoming project.
In that announcement, the studio revealed plans to screen a promotional video at Bandai's booth during the Tokyo Game Show:
At Bandai's booth in Hall 4 (!)
you'll be able to watch a promotional video and receive one of the
3,000 limited-edition, not-for-sale Illustration Mouse Pads！！
On October 20, 2001, CyberConnect2 published a follow-up update thanking attendees, which confirmed the video had been shown:
At the event, Bandai's booth also featured a promotional video for the new project, .hack, produced here at CyberConnect2.
The official .hack website launched on October 12, 2001, the same day the promotional video debuted at Tokyo Game Show.
The website contained three videos in its The World section, raising the possibility that one or more of them may have been related to the presentation shown at the event.
At present, no evidence has been found confirming whether the Tokyo Game Show video and the website videos were identical, partially reused, or entirely separate productions.
How can you help?
Several aspects of the promotional video remain unclear. We are particularly interested in information that may help answer the following questions:
- What exactly was shown in the video? (magazine coverage, event reports, or eyewitness accounts)
- Was the presentation related to the three videos released on the official .hack website?
- Was the video ever distributed, screened, or made available outside Tokyo Game Show 2001?
- Do any recordings of the presentation survive today?
Sources
- The plan to screen the video is confirmed by CyberConnect2's official announcement, viewable in or .
- The video's screening at the event is confirmed by a follow-up CyberConnect2 news update, viewable in or .
- The event dates are verified by the .