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News ► Square Enix Hiring Various Positions in HD Development for the Kingdom Hearts series



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Ballad of Caius

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I honestly think the next KINGDOM HEARTS game will be a full console experience like KHII, but it'll be more of a bridge game than a full experience like KH3. I'm getting Dream. Drop. Distance. vibes from the secret ending.
 

SuperSaiyanSora

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The last thing people want to do is buy a new console again, only to have the main games on PlayStation/Xbox. Even if it made sense business-wise, they're gonna have to port it over eventually OR just make it multi-plat for all.

If they did something like Persona 5 Scramble, that's one thing because everyone can play. But a Switch Exclusive? Highly, highly doubt it.
 

Ballad of Caius

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The last thing people want to do is buy a new console again, only to have the main games on PlayStation/Xbox. Even if it made sense business-wise, they're gonna have to port it over eventually OR just make it multi-plat for all.

If they did something like Persona 5 Scramble, that's one thing because everyone can play. But a Switch Exclusive? Highly, highly doubt it.
There could be an argument for making a bridge game that the Switch could handle and make it multiplatform for the XBone and PS4 as well. There's also the argument that the Switch is selling like pancakes with the addition of the Lite. Any developer would be enticed to try and get those sales. I honestly think it's imminent that the Switch will get the entire KH collection and Sora on Smash.

But right now, I think we'll get a KH3.5 on the XBone and PS4, and KH4 might be PS4 and Xbone multiplat with PS5 and next Xbox, or just next gen exclusive.
 

DizneyXBirds95

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I dont even think that idea was a good at the time they bought some time with the remakes but it was putting more or a strain on the team to get things done faster to accomadate this plan. Id be happy with a late 21 - mid 22 release for the next game to be honest
Judging on how they release and develop KH games it varies, usually it's 1-2 or 3-7 years for a new KH game (depending of the KH title) to come out. For the first KH game, development started in the year 2000 and ended in late 2001/early 2002 (Jan./Feb. 2002) which means development lasted for 2 years. For Kingdom Hearts II, development started after the release of KH Final Mix in December 2002 and lasted until 2005 (2 1/2-3 years).

Not sure how long development for Chain of Memories, Coded, and 358/2 Days took.

Development for Birth By Sleep started since 2005 and lasted until late 2009 (4 years), Dream Drop Distance started since early 2010 following the release of BBS and lasted until late 2011/early 2012 (1 1/2-2 years).

Finally, Kingdom Hearts III had the most interesting development for a KH game, as development started since late 2012/early 2013 but due to a switch from Square's Luminous engine to the Unreal Engine 4 in October 2014, development for KH3 restarted under the new engine up until November 2018 (5-6 years of KH3 being in development (1-2 years under Luminous; 4.25 years under the Unreal Engine 4).

Regarding the II.8 Final Chapter prologue, I'm not sure when development started but I think development for that title started around the same time that KH3 switched into the Unreal Engine 4 (October 2014), even the Graphics from 0.2 Birth By Sleep seems to suggest it was the first KH title that the team were testing on and the graphics for this game looked uncanny when compared to the Unreal Engine graphics of the X Back Cover movie and Kingdom Hearts III.

They can still reuse the character models and assets from KH3 for the next KH game without restarting from scratch again as they are using the Unreal Engine 4, but when it comes to the new Disney & original worlds and characters they create, it may take them another year or two to develop. I do expect the next new KH game for the PS5 to come out around mid-late 2021 or 2022, mainly the latter as it's the 20th anniversary of the first KH game and the KH franchise.
 

MATGSY

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Switch exclusive game with Nintendo worlds/characters. Data-Sora gets sent to Grand Central Station to find the missing Dandelions but has to go through a bunch of connected game worlds first for reasons.

EDIT: Possible reasons: Maleficent using her magic to reprogram the bad guys so they become legit enemies that Data-Sora has to purify with his keyblade.
 
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NoWay

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Although I would like the next KH games to release on Switch too, I actually don’t care about it that much. I’m still going to play KH on a Playstation console. But it would increase the popularity if they released The Story so far + 3 on Switch and XBOX, which means more money, which also means more resources for future games.
 

Recon

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I could be the technical artist. I’m great with MS Paint.
 

Ballad of Caius

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could this be for the port to XBox?
I don't think so. I imagine Square would partnership with Microsoft employees. And remember their team already has the abilities to deal with XBOne. I imagine they hired additional personnel in order to accomplish whatever it is they want with the next KH game.
 

LightUpTheSky452

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I'd like the record to state that I want the next game--that's apparently a side game--to be a Kairi game, where she goes on her own, fun Disney adventure (because she deserves it) to get stronger and finds and saves Sora. But since that won't happen, I hope the next game is just KHUX Final Mix and then we can move onto KHIV. For quite a few reasons, I don't want a DDD 2.0. Like, I'd be fine if KHIV STARTED as a DDD 2.0, I guess, but I don't want a whole game of it. Because I really don't want to jump into the "there are main games and side games...but the side games are important, so you need to play those to be able to understand everything" thing again (and, yes: with that idea, I should probably throw my bias away and admit that a Kairi side game would be problematic for the same reason, too). And because I want to get into everything as soon as we can: Subject X, the Master of Masters, Foretellers, Luxu, and Ven, Marluxia, Larxene, Demyx, and Luxord's past... Strelitzia, Verum Rex and Shibuya, Kairi and Riku without Sora, etc., and I feel a DDD 2.0 obviously wouldn't do all of that (because surely at least some of it is moreso IV stuff). So, really... Just give me some KHUX remake that gets everyone caught up there, and then give me KHIV, please:)
 

SuperSaiyanSora

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There could be an argument for making a bridge game that the Switch could handle and make it multiplatform for the XBone and PS4 as well. There's also the argument that the Switch is selling like pancakes with the addition of the Lite. Any developer would be enticed to try and get those sales. I honestly think it's imminent that the Switch will get the entire KH collection and Sora on Smash.

But right now, I think we'll get a KH3.5 on the XBone and PS4, and KH4 might be PS4 and Xbone multiplat with PS5 and next Xbox, or just next gen exclusive.

If they were to make a multi-plat title (Switch included) KH title, they'd have to port all the games onto the Switch. Whether they'd do it or not, who's to say. Xbox just got all the KH titles. But I just have a feeling that they're not going to do that any time soon. Eventually, I suppose, but this just reminds me of when people thought Joker in Smash = Persona 5 on Switch, and then it turned out to be Persona 5 Scramble (and surprise surprise, the game after getting torn apart initially actually looks really good lol).

It also depends on exactly what this next title actually is. If this is a Union X console remake, then depending on how much is going on, I'm sure the Switch can handle it just fine. But if it's going to be some crazy next-generation game that pushes the hardware to the limits (like say, FFVIIR), probably not. But who knows?

The Switch is a great console and could end up surprising everyone with just how much it can do, so I won't say never. And, KH on the go reminds me of the days of Crisis Core, Dissidia and BBS during high school, so there's a pretty good angle there. But maybe Square might be hesitant on making more handheld title spinoffs after everything and are thinking they're better off just staying on PlayStation and Xbox.
 

MATGSY

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If they were to make a multi-plat title (Switch included) KH title, they'd have to port all the games onto the Switch. Whether they'd do it or not, who's to say. Xbox just got all the KH titles. But I just have a feeling that they're not going to do that any time soon.
On the contrary, I'd wager ports will be announced the next time Nintendo has a direct and they'll release the same day as XB1 ports. It'll be like when FFXV Pocket and Crystal Chronicles HD got announced on PS4/XB1 a week before they were for Switch due to a delayed direct. The obvious intention was that the Direct was going to be where the announcements would be made originally but the timing got shuffled. That we don't have a date for XB1 beyond the vague 2020 definitely leaves room for an announcement before then.

The Switch is a great console and could end up surprising everyone with just how much it can do, so I won't say never. And, KH on the go reminds me of the days of Crisis Core, Dissidia and BBS during high school, so there's a pretty good angle there. But maybe Square might be hesitant on making more handheld title spinoffs after everything and are thinking they're better off just staying on PlayStation and Xbox.
On a side note, I'm surprised at how relatively little 3DS got from Square compared to PSP & DS. Sure, there was DDD, Theatrhythm, & Bravely Default. But they never really did another 'console-like' scale titles like DDD again. I'm particularly surprised at the lack of a Dissidia during that time.
 

Alpha Baymax

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Maybe they're hiring to re-create all the assets from previous games so they don't have to rely on flashbacks from the HD remasters whenever future games directly flashback to the past.

The counterpoint to both of those points is mobile. There is no reason to assume there won't be more mobile KH titles in the future.

Square Enix already has a dedicated art style with the X games, I highly doubt they would abandon that even if a new Kingdom Hearts mobile game is in the works.
 

MATGSY

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Square Enix already has a dedicated art style with the X games, I highly doubt they would abandon that even if a new Kingdom Hearts mobile game is in the works.
They had an established art style with KH Mobile, Theatrhythm, and Airborne Brigade. They didn't keep that one around.
 
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