Sword Art Online -style secondary creative application launcher is popular on Steam. Full dive -type useful tool

STUDIO BETA officially released on November 6 of local time on Steam's SAO UTILE 2: Progressive (SAO UTILE 2). The price is free. It is a secondary creative software influenced by the popular Sword Art Online in novels and animations. In addition to its reproducibility, it has gained popularity as a practical tool.

SAO UTILE 2 is an application launcher for Windows. As a concept, it is a secondary creative launcher that reproduces the in-game UI in the same name VR / MMORPG that appears in the Sword Art Online work. For example, the launch screen of this launcher is a reproduction of the launch screen of the full dive VR machine in the work. And when the launcher starts, the in-game UI just like the anime Sword Art Online develops. The menu that the characters actually operate in the work are deployed on the desktop.

It also supports sound effects and 3D space-style drawing, creating a VR-like atmosphere. You can also change the UI in the game Gang ale Online in the game Gun Gale Online in the spin-off work Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online.

The tool is also elaborate in terms of functionality. In addition to basic functions such as opening your favorite programs and folders, it also supports desktop widgets. For example, by default, Akihito's HP Bar is displayed at the top left of the launcher screen. This is actually the display of the CPU load rate of the PC. These can be displayed as desired by increasing the number of items and such as GPU load rate and HDD free space. In addition, there are a wide variety of widgets, such as Chat/Mail Client and Anime WEB distribution table (for Chinese users). It seems that programming allows users to create widgets themselves. It is a highly expandable tool that does not remain the reproduction of Sword Art Online.

This tool has started early access distribution at Steam in May this year. It was a certain popularity, such as using about 1,000 people from that point. After the official release on November 6 local time, the number of users in Steam increased dramatically. It seems that around 3,000 people use this tool every day through Steam (Steam db). As for the evaluation, more than 300 reviews were posted at the time of writing this article, including the early access stage. Of these, 95 % are popular very popular status. As for the content, in addition to the voices of fans who evaluate the reproducibility of Sword Art Online, the functional aspects are also evaluated.

One of the popular backgrounds is that this tool has been developed for a long time as SAO UTILE before Steam's appearance, and has already built a user-based. Studio BETA, which works for this tool, is a private studio by Joshua Chen. Regarding SAO UTILE, it seems that the Alpha version was developed in 2019. The tool also supports Japanese by volunteers. It seemed to be a topic in Japan and overseas, and it was gaining certain support before Steam's early access distribution.

And November 6, 2022, is the anniversary of the Sword Art Online work. On the same day, VR / MMORPG Sword Art Online launched the official service. It is the day when the protagonist Akihito's death began in the game where the real body died when he died in the game. On the same day in reality, Sword Art Online fans were also very excited. Under such circumstances, SAO UTILE 2 has been officially released and welcomed by fans.

In addition, the other day, the creator of the VR device Oculus has revealed that in commemoration of the event in Sword Art Online, he created a headset that actually loses life when losing in the game. (Related article). It was an anniversary of the passion of the Sword Art Online fans.

SAO UTILE 2: PROGRESSIVE is being distributed for free on Steam. The paid version SAO UTILE: BETA, which can be used by Steam services such as workshops and achievements, is also distributed, which is described as donation version.