When do you realistically see this thing being released?

[vaderskywalker]

A bit off topic, but it just occurred to me, there was a time when we were getting yearly releases, for example, Days 2009, BBS 2010, RE:coded 2011, DDD 2012, 1.5 2013, 2.5 2014, then we got a bit of a gap with 2.9 2017, then another gap followed by KH3 2019, then technically yearly with the release of MOM 2020, and now we have a gap with Kingdom Hearts 4, how did that happen? I mean I get it, things can change with game development, I just think it's kind of funny how that happened.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Optimistically, we could get FFXVI in June, FFVII Rebirth in December/January, and KH4 April-June 2024. I don’t think KH4 will be any later than January 2025 though.

I hope once XVI is out, we’ll get Rebirth’s official date and KH4’s release window.





Maybe they’re forming a new team for FF17 out of them and the people from Luminous since it is being dissolved. Development of main numbered titles could alternate between them and CBU3. Then the Remake series team could stay focused on that and eventually move to other Remake projects. It would certainly help SE keep a steady flow of AAA content.

But if so, I hope it doesn’t have too big of an impact on the KH team. Remind felt like they were finally hitting their stride with the gameplay, so hoping it doesn’t get set back. Can’t help but be a little nervous after the original KH team was pulled to Versus XIII back in the day and never came back.

Luminous Productions staff have to be retrained on current engines since I doubt Luminous the engine is going to be used moving forward. I don’t think they will be used as the complete staff for any major developments for awhile due to the poor reception of Forspoken, and will get relegated to support for various teams rather than remain as one single team.

I would predict they would get moved onto any and all currently in-dev projects to help speed things up.

In regards to the FF7R staff, I can’t imagine after FF7R Part 3 they would work on another remake project unless it was FF8. I think they have wanted to get FFX-3 off the ground for a long time and would probably work on that. There is the matter of IX rumored to be getting remade, which means there is another team at SE working on remakes. I think there will be a lot of rotating and baton passing rather than forcing any one team to a specific type of project.
Except the DQ staff. They are forever DQ.

 

[Chie]

Considering what FF7R actually is, the idea of giving that treatment to any other games is pretty weird. I doubt any other projects of that scope are in consideration.

 

[Zackarix]

My highly uneducated guess: after some of the KH staff worked on FFXVI, they were offered FFXVII.

I really hope this guess is wrong. But not only is moving the KH team to a FF project a thing that has happened before (and right around the same time that SE decided to make KH the third pillar of their company!) SE has also been known to repeat mistakes, even when said mistakes were disastrous (like following up Crystal Tools with Luminous.)

So I could absolutely see this happening. But I really REALLY hope you're wrong.

 

[Launchpad]

"ah, Kingdom Hearts team. I'm glad you rebuilt yourself up from the last time you were dissolved, and you have once again reached the pinnacle of boss design and combat. This is good-- we will now pilfer your team for talent to work on yet more Final Fantasy projects that won't go anywhere or see the light of day."

And then KH5 combat once again feels like wading through molasses.

But nah, it's not too likely. KH3 made big boy numbers, it'd be a really idiotic judgment call to stop what they've got going.

 

[YungXion]

2026 at the earliest.

 

[WaltK]

Now that we've gone a full year without even so much as an aknowledgent; I'm revising my guess to 2027.

 

[Antifa Lockhart]

Now that we've gone a full year without even so much as an aknowledgent; I'm revising my guess to 2027.

That's not really indicative of anything and has not been unheard of for KH games. If anything you should look at how polished the game was in its first trailer for an indication. KH4 was polished and in engine, KH3 was an FMV made by Image Works.

 

[Zackarix]

Square Enix has learned their lesson and will no longer announce games long before they're ready, right? Right?!

 

[Luminary]

Square Enix has learned their lesson and will no longer announce games long before they're ready, right? Right?!

Depends on your definition of long. FFXVI was announced in 2020 and released in 2023. It took about two years after the initial announcement for the marketing to really kick in. We’re still on track for KH4 to follow a similar course for a 2025 release.

 

[Launchpad]

They've already negotiated the rights to use (and create assets from) fucking Star Wars, I'm sure this thing's been humming along quietly but efficiently for quite a while. I'll take a quiet dev cycle over whatever happened with KH3

- a fake FMV reveal trailer
- a straight up BAD combat showcase in Twilight Town + the longest roller coaster animation eyes have ever seen
- a jpeg of Xehanort and Eraqus talking to each other
- a really rough trailer in 2015 where Sora looked like he was made of play-doh
- another trailer months later made up of the shots that weren't good enough to be in the previous trailer

Keep in mind, this represents almost three years of KH3 promotion, whereas KH4's first and only showing already demonstrates that they have higher quality assets than KH3 had to show for that entire duration.

 

[MATGSY]

Do bear in mind that Covid undoubtedly screwed with the early production of KH4. Like all companies, they had to very quickly adjust to WFH conditions. It can be safely assumed that any game that was at any stage in development in the last few years was impacted.

 

[maryadavies]

Amen Matgsy, amen. What's worse that everyone SHOULD keep in mind; In Japan, there was no WFH at all far as I know in software development. Which meant..all the software that let the workers dial in and work remotely is/was likely in ENGLISH at best, which prolly made setting it up NOT easy at all and was probably a huge pain to do.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a lot of dirty language thrown around the office that we'd rather NOT know the translation for/meaning of when they had to do it b/c of covid and it took longer than it should of b/c of language barriers. (I talked to my brother who has done remote tech support; not going to ask him to come over here and read you guys the riot act but yeah..not pretty). This impacted things of course, when they can't write code..

Anyway it delayed Endwalker by about 3-6 months, so this could be that much later too. I can find links to old Yoshi-P interviews if you wanna see, and Yoshi is known to drive himself and his team hard. No telling with Nomura.

 

[Zackarix]

It's worth noting that KH4 wasn't announced until 2022, after the disruptions caused by the pandemic became the new normal. I don't think that they would have announced it at all unless development was at least happening with minimal set-backs. Or at least, that's what I hope.

 

[Mog]

1st Quarter 2025. Let's get some news going at TGS!

 

[Phoenix]

The wait between BBS and KH3 traumatised me, so I'm going to say 2029.

 

[KeybladeLordSora]

That's not really indicative of anything and has not been unheard of for KH games. If anything you should look at how polished the game was in its first trailer for an indication. KH4 was polished and in engine, KH3 was an FMV made by Image Works.

That's true. KH3 didn't even have a teaser with new voice acting until 2014, and it didn't have a legit gameplay trailer[albeit with a placeholder HUD]until 2015.

 

[PikaPal]

Anyone's guess but my guesses are either 2024 or 2025.

 

[Alexxio M.]

My bet for kh4 is Early 2025 at best and Late that same year at worse for Missing link next March or April at best or next October at worse I choose those months in particular because of how the weather is at those times in Japan. I myself hope for next April for missing link