Don't Expect Kingdom Hearts 3, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Until At Least 2018

Square Enix has still yet to provide a release date for Kingdom Hearts III or Final Fantasy VII Remake, but if you were holding out hope that either one would launch this year, things aren't looking good.

A recent investors document the company shared (via NeoGAF) highlights many of the company's recent major releases, as well as those expected in fiscal year 2018 (which began at the start of April) and beyond. Whereas several of these future games, including Dragon Quest XI, have at least vague "2017" dates listed, Kingdom Hearts III, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and the upcoming Marvel games have nothing at all.

While this is not a formal announcement that none of these will release this year, it seems incredibly unlikely that we see any of them before 2018 at the earliest.

That comes as little surprise. The Marvel partnership was confirmed not that long ago, while comments from Kingdom Hearts III and Final Fantasy VII Remake director Tetsuya Nomura earlier this year reinforced that neither of those projects was on the verge of release.

"While I can't make a sweeping statement because the development process is different from what we've done so far, there are still worlds untouched," he said of Kingdom Hearts III at the time. "Production is progressing on unannounced worlds, in a state that we cannot show them off. In terms of the state of development, there is still some way to go.”

Despite that, he did express interest in at least sharing something from the two games at some point in 2017.

"Last year, I didn't put out much information on either title, but this year I want to show our progress at an event somewhere," he said. "The release of the titles themselves have still have a way to go. But there are many titles releasing this year, if you can wait for any 'surprises.'”



[Gamespot]