The site kingdomhearts3.net  apparently got some sort of an interview with Tetsuya Nomura ((game director, character designer, concept) and here is what he had to say...

About the new Kingdom Hearts title that will be announced after summer this year (2007), will that be a direct sequel?
Tetsuya Nomura: “Hmm…I’m not sure how much I can say. I’ll start of by saying that it’s not Kingdom Hearts 3.”

So this game will be a side story?
Tetsuya Nomura: “That’s right. My own feelings are that I would like to give Sora a break from large adventures for a little while. So I’m thinking of making the next game’s story focus on other characters.”

So by a little while, do you mean that Sora’s journey from Kingdom Hearts 2 hasn’t finished?
Tetsuya Nomura: “Yes. If you’re talking about the mysteries that started from Kingdom Hearts 1, then those were all revealed. In the ending of Kingdom Hearts II, there was a scene where Sora received a letter from the King; for Sora, I would like you to consider this as a new beginning. The truth is, until the very end, I was considering whether or not to include a scene showing them setting off on a journey after reading the letter.”

So, let’s talk about this new story, which doesn’t have Sora as the main character. What sort of story will it be?
Tetsuya Nomura: “Well, I need to start with the story depicted in a Birth by Sleep. Aside from that, there’s the story of how the King found his keyblade in the world of darkness and other things like that. Myself, one of the things I most want to do is to give Roxas more of a role to play. I think it would be interesting to flesh out more of the year he spent between his birth and disappearance. Or making Riku the main character, and writing about his desperate fight while Sora was asleep, and things like that. You get the impression that Riku summoned Roxas to a place of shadows, and that Riku is a master of shadows, so I would like to give him more exploration in the game.”

Will there be anything different in the game system?
Tetsuya Nomura: “I’d like to try something a little different to the previous games in the KH series. I’m not just talking about the next game, more about the next project, so I can’t say that it will just be one game (laughs). For the Kingdom Hearts series, being made with our company and Disney, both companies have things in mind that we would like to make reality, so there’s always at least two things we want to do.”

What platform does it look like the next game will be released on?
Tetsuya Nomura: “Hmm… Probably a hand-held platform. Right now we’re working on titles for the PSP (FFVII Crisis Core), Nintendo DS (This Wonderful World) and for mobile phones (MONOTONE), so I wouldn’t be surprised if it were on any of those platforms.”

Is there any chance that this game may be released on multiple platforms?
Tetsuya Nomura: “We haven’t considered that in the development. If possible, I would like to make a system that suits the platform. But in contrast, in terms of ideas, I would want ideas that could be released on any platform.”

The more I hear about the next game, the more exciting it sounds, but for the fans the first thing to do is to see KH2 Final Mix’s secret movie isn’t it?
Tetsuya Nomura: “Yes. I’m worried that we made the conditions for getting the secret movie too hard, but through reading this guide, I hope the readers will be able to see the secret movie. Finding a way to defeat (the new boss) is tough, but I’ve seen it done, so I know it’s not impossible (laughs). If you’re able to see the new secret movie and turn your thoughts to the next Kingdom Hearts, I’d be very happy.”

Sounds like it could be a while before we see KH3, and if that is the case it is way to far in the future to predict what console it is going to. 

Oh too bad... oh well, we can't do anything :P

Good for DS owners :)

This is soo old, I read that around february. Again this is the spin off but kh3 will be talked about 08 Atleast thats what I think.

You know I think he is releasing those games to see which one sells the best, and it will see what handheld deserves kh. Really I want it to come out on the psp, I have a ds, but a game that great doesnt deserve to be brought to the ds, then again ff 3 was awsome.

I just posted this on the KH3 thread.

@leo-j

This interview was posted on July 23. I don't see how it could be THAT old.

 Are you sure? It hit digg 3 days ago, was posted to that fansite like 4 days ago, and none of the "fans" in the comments mentioned seeing it before.  I checked pretty thoroughly to make sure it was new info....

 I figured a lot of people saw that thread and sort of did a pshhhhawww, so I made a new thread so those folks would see it.

 Just out of interest, why do you personally think that great games dont deserve to be on the DS? o.O

Because he is a graphics whore.

Best Game=Best Graphics 

 I don't know what his answer to the question will be, but for my part I think the DS deserves great games it is just that I think this is the type of game that would be better suited to a console. I could be completely wrong, and developers often find a way to make a game work well on a whatever console they need to.

Ultimately I think it is best if they can provide versions of the game for both the console and the handhelds...although it can be harder to ensure the games turns out as they are envisioned when you are split between two projects.