Pixelity Inc. is bringing the first U.S. public hands-on for EVANGELION: Δ CROSS REFLECTIONS to San Francisco on September 25, 2026. Applications opened September 1 and close September 8 at 11:59 p.m. PT. About 80 people will get in by lottery. The rest of the calendar is a 2027 ship window, not a 2026 retail launch.
That distinction matters. Pixelity already moved the game out of its original 2026 release plan in late August. The San Francisco preview is still on. It is a development checkpoint with AR, a NERV Headquarters walkthrough, and playable story and battle builds—not a soft launch dressed as a fan event.
What the September 25 session actually includes
Per Pixelity’s Games Press release and coverage from UploadVR and Road to VR, attendees near Union Square will get three layers:
- AR experience — a major Neon Genesis Evangelion character approaches and stands beside participants. The character is unnamed until the event. A photo moment is part of the setup.
- VR walkthrough — a head-mounted recreation of in-game spaces, including NERV Headquarters.
- Playable builds — early Story Mode (narrative and character interaction) and Battle Mode (combat in a NERV simulation).
Admission is free. You must be 18 by September 25. Selected applicants get email notice by September 22, with the exact address and session times withheld until then. The application form is live through Pixelity’s event listing; the studio’s global X account for the title is the other official channel for updates.
The game Pixelity is actually building
Δ CROSS REFLECTIONS is not a straight remake of the 1995 TV series. Players are a NERV officer cadet in Tokyo-3, working alongside both franchise characters and an original cast. The studio frames it as an immersive action-adventure that “crosses paths” with the anime’s world rather than putting you in Shinji’s headset for a beat-for-beat retelling.
It is also the first slice of a planned trilogy meant to cover all 26 TV episodes. Press materials list a 2027 release on “various VR devices,” with both VR and mixed reality supported. Platform SKUs are still unannounced. Earlier showcase reporting, including from XR Source around the franchise’s 30th-anniversary events in Japan, described controller-free interaction built around hand tracking—strong circumstantial evidence that Meta Quest is in the primary test stack, but not a store listing.
Why the preview still matters after the 2027 slip
On August 25, Pixelity said the commercial window moved from 2026 to 2027 and apologized to fans waiting on a late-2026 ship. In the same messaging, the studio kept the hands-on previews on the calendar and said feedback from those sessions would feed continued development. San Francisco is the first public U.S. cut of that plan. Additional preview stops for Germany and Japan have been mentioned in secondary reporting without firm dates.
For XR watchers, the useful read is narrower than the franchise noise. Licensed anime in headsets has a long history of trailer heat and thin day-one builds. Pixelity is doing the opposite of a closed press junket: a lottery for ~80 civilians, playable story and combat, and an AR beat that has to work outside a blacked-out demo bay. That is a higher-risk way to show an unfinished 2027 title—and a clearer signal that the studio wants production notes from people who are not trade journalists.
What is still unknown
Price, exact platforms, and a month inside 2027 are all open. So is whether Battle Mode’s Angel fights will feel like a full EVA simulation or a constrained training arena. The San Francisco build will answer some of that for the people who clear the lottery. Everyone else gets whatever Pixelity chooses to show afterward—and a reminder that the product is still a year-class away from a boxed promise.
Applications run through September 8. If you are in the Bay Area and old enough, the form is the gate. If you are waiting for a store page, keep waiting; the studio has already told you this is a 2027 game wearing a September preview.
Sources: Pixelity / Games Press, UploadVR, Road to VR, CBR (2027 delay).