Kingdom Hearts III
"Kingdom Hearts III" was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on January 25, 2019 in Japan and other Asian countries, and is scheduled to be released on January 29, 2019 elsewhere. In July 2017, at D23, it was announced that the game would release in 2018. Almost a year later, at an additional performance of the "Kingdom Hearts" Orchestra World Tour in Los Angeles, the game's North American release date was revealed to be January 29, 2019. Nomura spoke to moving the game's release date outside of 2018, stating the development team had been told the original release date they had considered was not "good timing in the year" to release the game, especially considering "differences in holiday lengths and how stores behave in different regions". In addition, Square Enix requested the game be released as simultaneously as possibly between Japan and the rest of the world, and not wanting to move up the release at the expense of development, resulted in the January 2019 date being chosen. The game's epilogue is planned to be added to the game on January 26 for Japan and January 30 elsewhere, while the secret film content is planned to be added worldwide on January 31, 2019. This was done in order to help prevent them from leaking beforehand, since Nomura called them "the biggest spoilers" in the game.
Tetsuya Nomura
In 2010, Square released "Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep", a prequel of the first "Kingdom Hearts" that explained scenes shown in "Kingdom Hearts II" and its updated version. In early 2011, Square released a follow up to "Dissidia" titled "Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy". The game carried several ideas Nomura had ever since early development, such as the inclusion of new characters and new gameplay mechanics. For 2011's "Final Fantasy XIII-2", Nomura only created the new characters' faces as other staff members designed their clothes. Once the "Kingdom Hearts coded" remake was released, Nomura and his companions had already thought about creating "", a game that would set up the events of "Kingdom Hearts III". The game was released for the Nintendo 3DS owing to the team's positive reaction to the console's quality. Nomura confirmed that he would be considering what he called an "HD Technical Test" in order to commemorate the series' tenth anniversary and to entice players new to the series. This occurred on March 3, 2012 in the form of a premiere event where footage from the game, including its full CGI introduction sequence, was showcased to celebrate the game's release. In May 2012, Nomura revealed he was working as the director of a new "Kingdom Hearts" game that had yet to be announced by Square Enix. He was directing "Final Fantasy XV" which originally entered production as "Final Fantasy Versus XIII" shortly before its announcement in May 2006. Nomura left his position of director on "Final Fantasy XV" following "changes in development structure" by Square Enix in December 2013. After his departure from "Final Fantasy XV", development of "Final Fantasy VII Remake" began, with Nomura directing the project and other key members of the original "Final Fantasy VII" development team, Kitase and Kazushige Nojima returning as producer and scenario writer. At E3 2015, "Final Fantasy VII Remake" was announced with Nomura confirmed to be the director of the game. Nomura designed the "Torna" organization for "Xenoblade Chronicles 2", finally working with Tetsuya Takahashi again who had wanted to work with Nomura for over 20 years since it was decided Nomura would work on "Final Fantasy VII" instead of "Xenogears".