At E3 2013, Kingdom Hearts 3 was officially announced via a surprise trailer during Sony's press conference. Since its initial reveal, Square Enix has kept the game close to its chest, only releasing minute bits of info and some gameplay footage to whet fans' appetites.

That all changed at E3 2015, as Kingdom Hearts 3 was treated as the star of Square Enix's press conference. Square Enix threw fans off by saying that the next Kingdom Hearts 3 update wasn't coming until this fall's annual D20 event in Japan, so the gorgeous gameplay trailer showcased during E3 came as one of the event's best and most genuine surprises.

Unfortunately, Kingdom Hearts 3 wasn't given a release window, let alone a release date, which may have left some fans disappointed. In fact, the text following the E3 trailer that would usually display when the company planned on releasing the game merely stated that the much anticipated title is "now in development."

To some, this came as a sign that Kingdom Hearts 3 may be eons away. However,  new information from the game's director, Tetsuya Nomura, indicates that while Kingdom Hearts 3 is certainly not releasing this year (in contrast to the rumors started by Goofy's voice actor), it may hit store shelves at least a little sooner than expected.

As Nomura explained to Games Radar, development on the game's basic systems, which would include primary gameplay mechanics that will largely define the experience, is nearing completion. As stated by Nomura, " [...] the basic structure of what's going to go into the game is set."

However, even though the basic foundation of the game is nearly completed, there's still a lot of work left to do. Since this is the first Kingdom Hearts game built from the ground up for HD capable consoles, this means that there's an unprecedented amount of detail to the game's environments. Of course, this means that the game requires more time than the previous titles to develop, especially in regards to its art assets.

Nomura's team is also working on developing some of the fluff elements in the game, such as mini-games. He stated that some of this content has been polished to the point that it's nearly finished, but other aspects haven't even had their groundwork laid quite yet. All in all, this points to Kingdom Hearts 3 still being a ways off, yet a lot farther along in development than Square Enix makes it seem on the surface.

Along with Kingdom Hearts 3, Nomura is also juggling two other major projects. He's working on the long delayed Final Fantasy 15, as well as the remake of Final Fantasy 7, the latter of which was revealed via a teaser trailer during Sony's E3 2015 press conference. This is not unlike Kingdom Hearts 3, which was revealed to the public in a similar fashion at E3 two years prior.

Kingdom Hearts 3 has no release date or even a release window yet, but it is in development for both PS4 and Xbox One.

Source: Games Radar

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