What indicators? Not trying to be an asshole, genuinely curious if you saw something I didn't. The lack of information, vagueness about upcoming announcements and refusal to commit to even a release year left me with an expectation of 2018 at best. Honestly I'd be totally unsurprised if this were a 2019 title.
In interviews Nomura said he did not want to release any info on KH3 until after KH 2.8 was released and done with. Then FFXV got delayed which in turn delayed 2.8 according to him. I'm just putting two and two together on that.
I could very well be dead wrong, we'll know that in a couple months.
In interviews Nomura said he did not want to release any info on KH3 until after KH 2.8 was released and done with. Then FFXV got delayed which in turn delayed 2.8 according to him. I'm just putting two and two together on that.
I could very well be dead wrong, we'll know that in a couple months.
Well, now that 2.8 and the 1.5+2.5 collection is out, it makes sense for news to happen soon - but those delays would likely just push the renewed PR effort back to starting at E3 at this point.
There's a Kingdom Hearts game every year. We got 2.8 (even though it technically should have been the KH game for 2016), so I guess 2018 for KH 3 then.
It was clear that while Kingdom Hearts 2.8 was doing it's marketing rounds, Kingdom Hearts III was put on the backburner so it wouldn't overshadow that release (I guess they wanted people to focus on this game rather than thinking KH3 is coming soon, skip 2.8 and just go to 3?).
When Nomura wrote a message about 2.8's delay, it was clear that FFXV caused it:
First, I must apologise. As was stated today, due to the adjustment of contiguous titles, our estimated release date for KINGDOM HEARTS 2.8 of December 2016 has become (for Japan) the 12th January 2017. To everyone who was looking forward to a release before the end of the year, I'm so sorry. Please rest assured that development itself is moving along as planned without a single issue and we are nearly finished.
Kingdom Hearts 3 might have been planned for Jump Festa at the end of December, but with the game pushed back to January they pulled the plug on showing that news, especially so soon before the release of another game in the series.
Personally, I'm expecting a media blowout at E3 since the "year of non-stop KH news" hasn't really delivered. There are too many ducks lined up for there not to be substantial reveals, from worlds to character, and possibly even a release date. There's also the KH3 news that will premiere at a concert
which would probably be Yoko coming out and performing like the KH3 version of Dearly Beloved or something