“Kingdom Hearts” has quickly become Square-Enix’s OTHER RPG megahit. The original quickly shot to the top of the charts and received massive critical acclaim. It was rated the 22nd best PS2 game of all time by IGN.com and was voted as 19th best game of all time by the readers of Famitsu Magazine in Japan. So it’s no surprise that to date the game has sold over 5.6 million copies worldwide, and has garnered 1 sequel, and 4 spinoffs spanning across three handheld platforms and mobile phones.
“Kingdom Hearts” is also one of the most influential games of recent history. It totally redefined the crossover genre by blending the magic of Disney and fantasy of “Final Fantasy.” It took action RPGs to a new level, introduced a new, young crowd to RPGs, and marked the directorial debut of mastermind Tetsuya Nomura. Nomura-san, who first made a major impact on the gaming industry with his art and design for “Final Fantasy VII,” finally got his chance at directing and having full creative control with “Kingdom Hearts.”
Needless to say, “Kingdom Hearts” is a major franchise, and a hardware seller.
So that brings us to the new generation of gaming, and Kingdom Hearts placement. As it stands, “Kingdom Hearts” has yet to make the full next gen leap. Currently, there are only 3 new titles in production, “Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep” for the PSP, “Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days” for the Nintendo DS, and “Kingdom Hearts: Coded” for mobile phones (which currently is not scheduled to be released outside of Japan.) Needless to say, while there are plenty of goodies in the “Kingdom Hearts” pipeline, there’s still a lot left to be desired. After all, fans want a continuation, Birth by Sleep is a prequel, and 358/2 Days is a side story to “Kingdom Hearts 2.” Surely at some point, we will see a Kingdom Hearts 3 on a console, as to when that will be is anyone’s guess (the team is currently hard at work on the PS3 exclusive “Final Fantasy vs XIII.”
The question is however, WHERE will Kingdom Hearts 3 be? We’ve made it to a new era in gaming. 3rd party exclusives are now a thing of the past, as it seems games are constantly going from PS3 to Xbox 360 and vice versa. Production costs have skyrocketed, breaking well past the million dollar range. It’s not a tough pill to swallow, but it shows how far we’ve come. Eight years ago, “Shenmue” on the Dreamcast was the most expensive game ever, yet it’s production costs now seems like chump change compared to today’s games. So, will Kingdom Hearts be the same, will it be on both the Xbox 360 and the PS3? My person belief…no, it will not.
As stated before, Kingdom Hearts is the brainchild of Tetsuya Nomura. He has full creative control over the series, and is personally involved with every game that comes out, even the mobile phone games. Despite working tirelessly on “Final Fantasy vs XIII” he still manages to be fully immersed in the development of all 3 Kingdom Hearts mobile games. But what does this have to do with platform, quite a lot actually. Tetsuya Nomura has stated on numerous occasions, his absolute love for both the PS3 and the PSP. He has been enjoying the technological advantages the PS3 has over the 360, and has stated that he truly feels his vision of FFvXIII can be realized with the Blu Ray and Cell Processor. In other words, Nomura is somewhat of a Sony fanboy. As we’ve already seen, he has no plans to port vsXIII to the 360 (as it stands at the time of this writing anyway, though chances of that happening are slim to none.) He has boasted about vsXIII full utilization of the Blu Ray disc and the Cell processor, only found in the PS3. So, why wouldn’t he want the same for” Kingdom Hearts?” Certainly if he has this much vested into a Final Fantasy title on the PS3, he would accept nothing less for his baby, “Kingdom Hearts.” After all, Nomura built Kingdom Hearts from the ground up. He was head writer, head designer and the director. This is his “Swan Song” his “Citizen Kane” his…”Metal Gear Solid.”
The success of “Kingdom Hearts” across all ages and territories has given Nomura-san a lot of pull down at Square. Point is, when he talks, people listens, and when he wants something, chances are he’s going to get it. The fact that Nomura has the power to say “Final Fantasy vs XIII will be exclusive to the PS3” and from then on it IS, says something. So you ask, why didn’t he do the same for “Final Fantasy XIII?” Simple, he’s not the director. Sure, he had a lot of influence, but he mostly handled the art for that game. And while I’m sure he could have made a stink about it, he’s surely much more interested in the fate of his own title, and not one he’s only partially involved in.
So, will “Kingdom Hearts 3” release on Xbox 360? My answer is a very strong “Most Likely not.” Nothing is impossible, but here are 5 good reasons why it WON’T find its way to Microsoft’s system
1) Tetsuya Nomura is the director and calls all the shots.
2) It most likely won’t even begin its development for another year, and as we’ve seen with recent titles like Doom 4, DVD9 is quickly becoming too small to handle the games developers are pumping out. And if ID can fill up a DVD so much that they need more than one disc at this current time, surely Nomura and his team can in a year or more from now.
3) The game honestly has a better chance of finding its way to the Wii before the Xbox. Nomura seems to have quite a liking for Nintendo, he’s already developed 2 “Kingdom Hearts” titles for them, “Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories” for the Gameboy Advance, and the upcoming “Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days” for the DS
4) Disney has a lot of influence in “Kingdom Hearts,” and as we all know, they have developed quite the intimate relationship with Sony because of the Blu Ray format. While I certainly don’t think this would be a strong factor, it is still a fact.
5) And finally, the Xbox 360 itself. We certainly have seen a good amount of RPGs heading to the system, but other than “Tales of Vesperia,” we have yet to really see how well they fair. Both “Blue Dragon” and “Lost Odyssey” did fair, but neither managed to really break the mold on the 360. Sure, they were good games, but they didn’t seem to get that push that so many action and adventure games get on 360. Not to mention, that neither managed to even make a dent in 360 sales in Japan, a big factor for Square-Enix. It will be interesting to see how well “Tales of Vesperia” does outside of Japan. 360 may have finally found its RPG megahit if the Japanese sales are any indicator. Still, the 360 is almost non existent in Japan, and that certainly is a not a good argument for the “Kingdom Hearts” franchise.
And there you have it. My reasons for why “Kingdom Hearts 3” will not make it to the 360. While I won’t say for certain it CAN’T happen, I can say with confidence that there’s a small chance that it WILL happen.
http://www.gamersplatform.com/2008/08/14/the-future-of-kingdom-hearts-360-or-ps3/
Some interesting info but i think that if Sony wants it for ps3 than they gonna have to pay or it could go either way, what do u think.
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