'Kingdom Hearts 3' is far from completed, Square Enix eyeing a '2018 and beyond' release

"Kingdom Hearts 3" was first announced in 2013, during that year's Electronic Entertainment Expo. Kingdom Hearts III/Facebook

It has been almost 12 years since Square Enix released a full-numbered chapter to what is arguably one of its most beloved franchises. Despite this, however, it does not look like “Kingdom Hearts 3” will be released any time soon.

KH3 has been on the table for years now, as it was first announced and confirmed in 2013 during that year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo. Since then, game developer Square Enix has not announced a release date, but has instead been filtering choice details about the upcoming game. The gameplay trailer was not released until 2015.

A recent investor document has confirmed that the game will not be released within the current calendar year. The presentation placed “Kingdom Hearts 3” under the “2018 and Beyond” category, which seems to indicate that Square Enix does not know when the game will be ready. At the very least, the game developer is not confident enough to state an actual release date.

This, however, should not be surprising to fans of the franchise as director Tetsuya Nomura had already told Famitsu (via Gematsu) that “Kingdom Hearts 3” was far from completion. “While I can’t make a sweeping statement because the development process is different from what we’ve done so far, there are still worlds [that are] untouched,” he said. “Production is progressing on unannounced worlds, in a state that we cannot show them off. In terms of development, there is still some way to go.”

So while Nomura was clear about the state of the game earlier this year, he did also say that Square Enix would show development progress “at an event somewhere.” When it has come to KH3, most announcements and trailer releases have been made during E3 events. As such, many have suggested that new details on the game will be announced at E3 this June.

Players will once again take the role of Sora as he travels across the universe with Donald and Goofy. Nomura has confirmed that the story will continue directly from “Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.”

“Kingdom Hearts 3” has already been confirmed for both the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One. There have been rumours circling about a Nintendo Switch compatibility, but neither Nintendo nor Square Enix has confirmed the same.

Watch the "Kingdom Hearts III" trailer from Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015