Square Enix dropped the Kingdom Hearts 3 release date bombshell several days even before the start of E3 2018. The release date was not 2018 as the Japanese company previously stated. It was disappointing news for long-time fans of the game, who have been anticipating it since Kingdom Hearts 2 released way back in 2006. The reason isn’t exactly what we expected.
Kingdom Hearts 3 director Tetsuya Nomura recently spoke to IGN at E3 2018 and spilled the beans on why the highly-anticipated game was delayed yet again. Nomura said, via a translator: “The timing of release that we were actually looking at, we were told by many people, including hardware manufacturers, marketing teams, sales teams that it just wasn’t a good timing in the year.”
Simply put, Square Enix wanted to give Kingdom Hearts 3 an almost simultaneous worldwide release, which would be a welcome change for the long-running franchise. Past titles have always received Japanese releases at least a few months earlier than international releases.
Nomura added: “…For Kingdom Hearts 3, the [Square Enix] western offices had requested to release the game as simultaneously as much as possible between Japan and America, so we were no longer able to just think about Japanese issues and retail situations.”
Kingdom Hearts 3 E3 2018: Big Hero 6 World
Fans have also been wondering why the game hasn’t unveiled any footage or gameplay from its Big Hero 6 world. There’s also a simple reason for that and we will probably receive a glimpse of San Fransokyo before the game launches on January 29th, 2019. Nomura said: “…We pretty much have finished creating all the gameplay within that world, but we’re just not finished with the cutscenes yet.”
It was also recently confirmed that there will be multiple editions of Kingdom Hearts 3, which includes a Deluxe Edition and a Deluxe+ Edition. The most expensive set will include many extra goodies, including figurines for Sora, Donald, and Goofy, as well as other merchandise, Check out what they are in our article.