With its prequels and side stories, the Kingdom Hearts franchise has kept followers of the series engaged for years. Fans have anticipated the next big title in the franchise for some time: Kingdom Hearts III (KH III) . In a recent interview, Tetsuya Nomura discusses life, his full schedule of projects, and notably what his plans are for KH III.

Nomura-san commented on the current challenges he faces developing KH III:

“For any sequel of the mainstream storyline of the Kingdom Hearts series, that would be Kingdom Hearts III”

He added:

“But the problem is that the opportunity of developing the sequel is not currently [possible]. The team is busy, I am busy.”

Even with his busy schedule, KH III is still something he wants to do and is preparing for. Nomura-san had this to say about his thoughts on the next chapter in the storyline:

I’m thinking about what’s going to be next after Kingdom Hearts II, the future that is Kingdom Hearts III. Time has nearly come to [work on] that concept.

With the game’s concept phase being in sight, it leads to the question: When can we expect it?  When asked if we would see it on the current generation of consoles, he gave this revelation:

Yes it might be possible. It is my desire to develop the next Kingdom Hearts on the existing platform, but the problem with a new console is that it has new technical requirements… So, yes, I’m willing to create something on the existing console because when we aim for another non-existing future console, the release of the title will be far in the future. That’s my concern.

Nomura-san is a busy man, even stating he had to “sacrifice my private time, my marriage, my family time” to stay on top of all his current projects. At least KH III is one of those projects. No matter how long it takes, it will be worth the wait.

[Source] & playstationlifestyle.net

Sounds like a sequel is still far off, but at least its happening this gen.

So Soriku was right then?

Oh well. KH3 in 3/4 Years people.

Although. If it's released on CURRENT gen consoles. I think it's safe to say it will be a PS3/360 release.

If next gen, we could be seeing it release on all 3 main consoles. Unless SE still want to bumlick MS.

KH3 is so late to the party. I played the first two games when I was 15 years old, and I'm 21 now. This is ridiculous.

At this rate, they'll have to skip Wii and go straight to Wii 2. ;)

Pretty sure it won't be on the Wii.

Pretty sure it'll be on PS3 because of the Versus XIII engine he's made.

Japan is also key.

If that's the case, it won't be on PS3 or Wii.  Neither system is really doing all that great in Japan, and both might not even be on the market anymore by the time KH3's ready.

Out of the current options, I think PS3/360 is most likely right now, but next gen is probably what's going to actually happen given the timetables we're looking at...

You do have a point. PS3 is nothing like the PS2 numbers in Japan and RPGs don't sell well on the Wii as well as the PS3 either. But really that's not going to stop Square from releasing.

But the way he's talking about KH III, it's gonna be like a last minute game where it releases just as next gen starts. KH II launched when the PS3, X360 and Wii were all out on the market in 2005/2006.

I'm more inclined to believe that it'll be PS3 Exclusive. Like I said Nomura has the Versus XIII engine all built which he spent all this gen on and if KH III was to release at the end of this gen, then that'll further show that he'll use this engine. He's only worked on one console as a director this gen and that's the PS3. Like I don't think he'll have the time to build a Wii game from ground up when he's got the PS3 engine there. He has the resources and the the dev team for the PS3 so he may well use that last effort to release KH III at the end of this gen.

But of course all this won't be true if it doesn't release on current gen consoles, but I want it to!!!