Board Thread:New on Sword Art Online Wiki/@comment-172.56.10.194-20150114004516/@comment-8656-20150116140345

I was under the impression that they had not formally declared one way or the other on that front.

But since both Squad Jam and Girls Ops exist, one might have thought that the concept of a Kirito-less (or Kirito-lite) storyline would not have been entirely out of bounds for them to consider...