Bandai recently announced the title and release date for the highly anticipated fourth installment of their popular PlayStation 2 series, .hack. The fourth installment, entitled .hack://Absolute Encirclement, will be released in Japan on April 10, 2003. No official North American release date has been announced yet.

The .hack series began with .hack://Infection, then grew to .hack://Malignant Mutation and .hack://Erosion Pollution. None of the titles have reached North American shores yet, but the releases are imminent.