• Final Fantasy 7 Remake & Kingdom Hearts 3 to launch "in the next three years or so."

    During a financial briefing for Square Enix's fiscal year ending in March 2017, Square Enix President and CEO Yosuka Matsuda addressed the company's plans for future titles.



    "This slide shows our release lineup for FY2017/3 as well as FY2018/3 and beyond. We plan to launch each of these upcoming titles in the next three years or so."


    This news means that Square Enix intends to launch these games by the year 2020. Kingdom Hearts III was first announced at E3 2013, while the Final Fantasy VII Remake was revealed at E3 2015.

    To put things into perspective, Kingdom Hearts II released in the year 2005 in Japan. This could put the wait at fifteen years between sequels.

    Does this news surprise you? Do you feel you're willing to wait until 2020 for these titles?

    Credit to gematsu for the original article and picture.
    This article was originally published in forum thread: Final Fantasy 7 Remake & Kingdom Hearts 3 to launch "in the next three years or so." started by Scruffington View original post
    Comments 17 Comments
    1. Wolf Kanno's Avatar
      Wolf Kanno -
      I am not surprised actually. Most of the early screenshots and video we've seen for both titles looked like early concept videos instead of of say, early beta. I'm also pretty sure neither game even really began development until FFXvXIII/XV was finally put out, and considering the amount of DLC they still have planned for that, it would keep some resources thin. Not to mention DQ XI is SE's next big in-house development and that will do wonders in Japan.

      I feel the real sad thing about all this, besides all the annoyed fans for KHIII who now have to wait even longer, is that this will likely mean SE has no plans to work on FFXVI until one of these two projects is out the door, meaning we probably won't hear about it until post-2020. Granted the article says "in the next three years" so KHIII might still get a holiday release next year optimistically. That's assuming SE doesn't overload Tetsuya Nomura's schedule with more easy side projects that will eat up all his spare time.
    1. Formalhaut's Avatar
      Formalhaut -
      At this point it's been so long I just read this and go 'shrug'. It isn't big news, I knew the wait would be ages.

      But hey it gives me more time to finish all of the KH series!
    1. Scruffington's Avatar
      Scruffington -
      All memes aside, it's actually scary to think that KH3 might not even come out until 2021.

      I miss the days when we got VII-VIII-IX-X-XI all within a six year span. We're now at a point where we might not even get one new mainline Final Fantasy every six years.
    1. Darth Ganon's Avatar
      Darth Ganon -
      "You were gone a long time! What were you doin'?"

      "Waiting for Final Fantasy XV to be over and done with."
    1. Vyk's Avatar
      Vyk -
      Last I heard they were still working on the intro sequence they showed off at the announcement. They're still working on something that was done and showed off, at the launch of the PS3

      I'm done worrying about either of those games, and KH3 doesn't interest me at all. And I'm honestly not sure if I even trust them to do a good job anymore. Though they have been making some interesting choices recently, so I'll be satisfied seeing what they come up with in the meantime

      And what is that Marvel License IP? Hadn't heard any of that before
    1. WarZidane's Avatar
      WarZidane -
      Remember, "all of these within the next 3 years" is something entirely different than "all of these in 3 years". My bets are still on 2018 for KH3 (for Japan at least), it's almost definitely further along than FF7 Remake and the new Marvel game.

      I feel like the jump to HD and then the development hell of 15 just completely screwed all of their plans and schedules, so with those two out of the way things should speed up at least a little again.
    1. Fox's Avatar
      Fox -
      This is a natural consequence of Nomura refusing to let anyone work on Kingdom Hearts until they understand the lore.
    1. fat_moogle's Avatar
      fat_moogle -
      Wait wait wait wait WAIT! I'm sure the FFVII Remake was announced at last years E3, not in 2015. I can't believe how fast those two years have gone o.O

      Anyway, hopefully the FFVII Remake will release "within" three years, not "in" three years. It's episodic, right? My bet is late 2018 for FFVII Episode 1, 2019 for KH3, then Nomura's focus can be on the rest of the FFVII project.

      I wish SE would stop announcing things so damn early. Did they not learn a thing from the FFXIII / Fabula Nova Chrystallis fiasco?
    1. Scruffington's Avatar
      Scruffington -
      Quote Originally Posted by pudgy bird View Post
      Anyway, hopefully the FFVII Remake will release "within" three years, not "in" three years. It's episodic, right? My bet is late 2018 for FFVII Episode 1, 2019 for KH3, then Nomura's focus can be on the rest of the FFVII project.
      That's wishful thinking. Square Enix is actually hiring right now for production on the FF7 Remake. They don't even have the full staff ready for the game yet.

      It's actually terrible to think that only the FIRST PART of VII would be finished by 2020. We'd still have 2 more parts after that, which could be released in 2022 and 2024 if we're being optimistic.

      That puts us at well over 7 years between now and the completion of the VII release cycle, and a total of 9 years since it was first announced back at E3 2015.

      Good god, Square.
    1. Wolf Kanno's Avatar
      Wolf Kanno -
      Yeah, it seems to me that Square-Enix really needs to be focusing more on getting their development cycles cut shorter. Which they probably could do if they didn't insist on all of their games having cutting edge, make your eyes bleed from the beauty, graphics. I mean if the VII Remake had just been done using the Crisis Core/Dissidia/Type0 engine, they wouldn't have to break it up into episodes and a 2018/19 window would probably be very likely.
    1. Del Murder's Avatar
      Del Murder -
      Not surprised. Shameless plug:

    1. DrowCow's Avatar
      DrowCow -
      Honestly I have waited to long, the hype train came, and went. Which has left me sour and bitter, so with nothing better to do...

    1. Yubel-Lover's Avatar
      Yubel-Lover -
      I mean.... We've already waited forever so....
    1. Rocket Edge's Avatar
      Rocket Edge -
      Can't for the life of me understand why it takes this company so long to release stuff. It's been 11 years since KH2 and we still don't have an idea when KH3 will be released.
    1. Aulayna's Avatar
      Aulayna -
      SE first have to make the teaser trailer teasing the actual trailer that teases the gameplay teaser trailer of the gameplay trailer that features another teaser trailer for the teaser trailer of the hype trailer for the release trailer only to delay the trailer to make another teaser trailer teasing the tease of the teaser trailer for the release trailer and then eventually they tease the announcement trailer for the actual trailer announcing that they are actually making a trailer to show that they are developing the game and a trailer of the game will be teased in another trailer to be shown with the gameplay trailer that eventually leads to the release trailer and... wait... what game are they working on again?
    1. FFNut's Avatar
      FFNut -
      Quote Originally Posted by Aulayna View Post
      SE first have to make the teaser trailer teasing the actual trailer that teases the gameplay teaser trailer of the gameplay trailer that features another teaser trailer for the teaser trailer of the hype trailer for the release trailer only to delay the trailer to make another teaser trailer teasing the tease of the teaser trailer for the release trailer and then eventually they tease the announcement trailer for the actual trailer announcing that they are actually making a trailer to show that they are developing the game and a trailer of the game will be teased in another trailer to be shown with the gameplay trailer that eventually leads to the release trailer and... wait... what game are they working on again?

      This is true. They need 5 years of trailers to cut out the parts from the trailers out of the game, make new trailers to cut out those parts. Then go a whole new direction and show that nothing is as we except.
    1. Nice's Avatar
      Nice -
      I'd rather Square take feedback and criticisms leveled at FF XV and improve KH3 and FF 7 remake than rush those games. But we are living in a world where game development is nightmarish. The risk of such a long development cycle and announcing your game so early is that interest in your game dies.

      If KH 3 came out 8 years ago, I would have played it. But I've already fallen out of love with the series. I don't see myself giving a trout about that game. Hell I'm surprised I enjoyed XV.
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