Ever since Square Enix revealed in 2013 that "Kingdom Hearts 3" is on its way, many fans of the franchise have been eager to get their hands on the game. Two years after and still no sight of the game or any gameplay demo, speculations on its delay have come up. Rumors are circulating that the online playing feature caused the setback and moved the game from this year to a 2016 release.
According to a report in Latin Times, numerous factors caused the delay in the game's release date. Among those noted were the deaths of two key voice actors, Leonard Nimoy and Chikao Otsuka. Both passed away in early 2015. No reports were made if their voice recordings were done before their deaths.
The game also recently transferred to Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 and some speculations attribute the delay to this shift.
Game co-director Tai Yasue said, "It was easy to shift to, but at the same time though, there was a lot of stuff specific to 'Kingdom Hearts' that we couldn't really do on Unreal 4 at first. So, we had a lot of co-operation from Epic - they did a lot - at the same time we were doing a lot of customization of the engine as well, to suit our needs."
Meanwhile, Ecumenical News reported that the upcoming title might include a multiplayer mode for the first time. An online job posting made by Square Enix, which showed the company looking for someone to handle online concerns, sparked the rumor.
Attack of the Fanboy loosely translated the advertisement to say, "In charge of general technical assistance (workflow construction, selection of middleware, etc.) in implementing the high quality graphic expression of 'Kingdom Hearts 3.' In charge of construction duties for a shader on the game engine for nature representations (water, rain snow, etc.) and special effects (magic, etc.) etc, constantly online games."
However, it is not yet clear what form the online content would come in for the video game.
These factors sparked rumors that the original 2015 release date was moved to next year. Master Herald cited a source close to the matter who revealed that the developers are gunning for a February 2016 launch date.
Square Enix would reportedly release more details about the game on E3 2015, which is scheduled in June.
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