Well to avoid spoilers and to put it simply... Steins;Gate 0 was the "sequel" to Steins;Gate. It's an adaptation of a novel series and audio dramas that were released after the original visual novel, and it goes into events that weren't clearly explained in the original. Characters who were only mentioned before now take the spotlight as we get to experience their stories set both before the events of S;G and after. So despite being a sequel, it's also a prequel in many ways. It begins close to the original game's ending, and it goes on from there.
Like the original series, 0 was eventually adapted into anime form, but liberties had to be taken to actually get this format to work. While the original story was pretty linear and easier to adapt, 0 follows multiple characters at different points of time, from different perspectives, and across multiple timelines. This of course had to be changed for the anime, and the result was something quite a bit different from the original source material. That being said, Steins;Gate 0 Elite is now here to fix that.
The original Steins;Gate Elite was a mixture of anime and visual novel. It took the original game's script, and used the anime's animation to portray it. So rather than watching a roughly 10 hour long show, it was expanded to it's full 30 to 40 hour long length. Needless to say to do this they had to animate new scenes, and reuse animations for long dialogue sequences, but overall it worked out really well. It was a way for those who prefer watching the anime to see the full uncut version of Steins;Gate, and it gave fans of the original visual novel a reason to go back and watch it this time. This is what Steins;Gate 0 Elite will be as well.
Like S;G Elite before it, 0 Elite takes scenes from the anime and puts them to the original full script. New scenes will once again be added for what wasn't covered in the anime (which includes all of those different timelines and character stories), and the result will once again will basically be the anime in uncut form. Some changes may be required to make this work completely, but what will be altered is still to be seen. Either way the announcement is great for those who enjoyed the anime or S;G Elite, and would rather keep watching rather than reading a standard motionless visual novel.
In other news...
On top of S;G 0 Elite, an American Steins;Gate TV Drama has been announced by Skydance Television. These are the guys behind multiple well known movies and TV series. Jack Reacher, World War Z, the newer Star Treks, Terminator Dark Fate, etc. On the TV side of things they've been responsible for shows such as Netflix's Altered Carbon, and Amazon's Jack Ryan TV series. They are also currently developing a version of Sword Art Online, so it's actually not too surprising they'd pick up something like Steins;Gate as well.
And finally...
Anonymous;Code is finally coming out this year! In Japan that is. The game has been in the works for quite some time now, and has undergone multiple revisions. Originally it was to be set within a different series timeline with connections to Steins;Gate's Science Adventure Series, but it has since been made a part of the main series itself. In other words it's the next main entry in what began all those years ago with Chaos;Head, and hopefully will continue on for years to come. Check out the new trailer below:
And that about covers it! Awhile back it was announced that multiple Steins;Gate related projects would be in the works, and we're still not done getting through these announcements. There will be more to come very soon in Japan. As for us in the West, we too will most likely be getting all of these games as well. The TV show is a given, but it won't be too surprising to see Steins;Gate 0 Elite and Anonymous;Code make their way here as well. It's just a matter of time before they are announced.
In the meantime, there are some other Steins;Gate related projects you can look forward to. The fan disk "My Darling's Embrace" was released here not too long ago, and Robotic;Notes is scheduled to be out later this year. So we still have some things to catch up on before we move on to the next mainline entry anyway.
