The long-awaited release of “Kingdom Hearts 3” is still some time away, and the game was actually allegedly postponed to 2017 due to some internal issues in the studio. While it wasn’t immediately known what this was about, recent rumors seem to indicate that disagreements between Square Enix and Disney could possibly be the root cause of the problem, as the two studios have been finding it hard to reach an acceptable middle ground on some issues.
On top of that, additional reports claim that the game will feature even more franchises in its world, including “Toy Story” and “The Jungle Book”. This would make the universe of “Kingdom Hearts 3” even more expansive than we’ve seen it in previous installments in the series, and this could easily be the best game fans have seen to date. Which is pretty much what most people seem to be expecting at the moment anyway.
Currently, the expected release date is January 2, 2017 – but this is just an unconfirmed rumor coming from a supposedly leaked e-mail from Amazon. We have no idea if it’s true or not, but we definitely see the possibility of the game hitting the market a little later if Square Enix and Disney really are having such issues with their communication. What is the exact problem between the two studios though?
It’s worth noting that Tetsuya Nomura claimed that the game’s delay has nothing to do with disagreements between his studio and Disney, but that could be just PR talk meant to calm down fans and prevent them from digging deeper into those allegations of conflicts. We can’t know for sure if there really are any strong disagreements that we aren’t being told about, but all things considered, it would not be surprising.
This franchise has gone through lots of ups and downs, and Square Enix have been trying very hard to make sure that the newest release is going to meet the expectations of fans and give them the kind of sequel they have always wanted. There are various things that have reportedly been done to improve the chances of this game becoming a major hit, but as long as Square Enix are careful enough to watch over online discussions about the title and keep an eye on fans’ opinions of the franchise’s direction, there’s not much that can go wrong.
Other worlds that have been rumored to be added to the game include “Hercules”, “Big Hero 6” and a few other more recent films by Disney. We don’t know if anything is getting removed, on the other hand, but it’s not that unlikely as Square Enix have been rearranging the setup of the franchise to some extent and they could easily decide to cut off elements that they don’t deem necessary anymore. While this could be disappointing to some long-time fans, it’s also an important point in improving the game in the long term.
Are we going to see “Star Wars” and Marvel worlds entering the franchise in addition to the above? This is yet another rumor that has been bothering fans a lot, and while there have been some hints in this direction, we don’t really know what’s coming up or what Square Enix could have planned. The studio is obviously trying to expand the franchise in all possible directions and they’re working hard with Disney to get as much out of the studio as possible.