Project .hack and .hack Conglomerate both form .hack, a Japanese multimedia franchise primarily developed by CyberConnect2 and published by Bandai. The franchise is set on an Earth with an alternate history. In this timeline, a new version of the Internet arises, following a major global computer network disaster in 2005. Central to the premise is a mystery about the wildly popular in-universe video game, The World. As most of the story takes place within The World, characters typically interact as their avatars.