Kingdom Hearts 3 Leak Means Future Square Enix Games May Not Have Simultaneous Worldwide Release

Game Rant

By Michael Beckwith

Published Jan 25, 2019

After a Kingdom Hearts 3 leak, director Tetsuya Nomura is now considering if he should to keep doing simultaneous worldwide releases for future Square Enix games.

Kingdom Hearts 3 is almost here, and with the franchise's story having grown more complex and convoluted since the series' debut in 2002, many fans have been trying to catch up in preparation. We here at Game Rant have even formed our own story recap to help others get up to speed on the lore. With such deep story beats, this makes the title rife for spoiling, and sadly, that's exactly what happened earlier this month when a small handful of copies were leaked early, which has now prompted director Tetsuya Nomura to reconsider doing simultaneous worldwide releases for future titles.

In a recent interview about Kingdom Hearts 3, Nomura expressed disappointment over the leak. Naturally, it's something he wishes to prevent happening again.

"... the only thing that really disappointed me about everything is that it brought sad thoughts to people who were looking forward to Kingdom Hearts 3. The risk is higher with simultaneous worldwide releases, and because of this incident I can't help but reconsider what I'll do for my next games, including simultaneous worldwide releases of physical copies at the very least."

For those unaware, most Japanese games tend to release in Japan long before they arrive in anywhere else, but if the two release dates are quite close, then the game is shipped to worldwide distributors all at once, which unfortunately comes with the risk of miscommunication and titles being released early. And with it happening to a game as big as Kingdom Hearts 3, it's no wonder Nomura, and probably Square Enix, don't want to see it happen ever again.

Regardless, Kingdom Hearts 3 is all but guaranteed to be a massive success once it officially comes out (though Japanese players are already enjoying it at the moment). It's already been getting rave reviews, with IGN giving it 8.7/10 and a score of 9.5/10 from Game Informer.

But even reviewers haven't been able to experience the full game yet, as the Secret Movie that provides the true ending has yet to be made available. It will be included as part of a free update on January 31 to help prevent it being spoiled. Nomura has recently revealed how players can unlock it so they can experience it themselves before YouTube gets flooded with videos of it.

Kingdom Hearts 3 launches on January 29, 2019 on PS4 and Xbox One.

Source: Famitsu (via Siliconera)