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Sword Art Online Holds Virtual Reality Horse Races
posted on by Kim Morrissy
The Sword Art Online series is teaming up with the Japan Racing Association (JRA) for a horse racing game with a virtual reality twist. Players can control Sword Art Online jockey avatars inside the cluster VR platform, where they can obtain items and compete in races with other users for the weekend-exclusive "Aincrad Cup" events.
New players will only be able to control Kirito and Asuna avatars, but by gathering all eight items inside the "Conquer the Virtual Racecourse" game, they'll obtain a secret avatar. Getting first place in one of the weekend-exclusive races will also get you an exclusive avatar.
There is also a virtual photo spot inside the game where you can take a selfie; residents of Japan can post their photos to Twitter with the #うまび (Umabi), #バーチャルセルフィー (Virtual Selfie), and #オータム・バーチャル・レーシング (Autumn Virtual Racing) hashtags to enter the running to win e-money.
The hololive Virtual YouTubers Shirakami Fubuki, Ookami Mio, Minato Aqua, and Sakura Miko will be promoting the campaign with livestreams. Fubuki and Mio's stream was held on October 23, while Aqua and Miko's streams will occur on October 29 and November 26 respectively.
Players can dive into the game today via the campaign website. The game will run until December 29.
The campaign promotes the Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Aria of a Starless Night anime film, which opens in Japan on October 30. The anime is based on Reki Kawahara's Sword Art Online Progressive light novel series, which tells the story of players trapped in a virtual world survival game.
Source: Press Release
