E3: ‘Kingdom Hearts III’ finally announced as ‘in development’ for PS4

Fans of the Square Enix series Kingdom Hearts got a huge boost last night when it was confirmed that yes, a sequel would finally be coming after seven long years.

After Square Enix revealed that Final Fantasy Versus XIII would actually be a new installment in the series as Final Fantasy XV, FFvXIII director Tetsuya Nomura said he had one more trailer to show at Sony's E3 press conference:

The popular franchise, a blend of Square Enix and Disney characters in an original storyline, first debuted for the PlayStation 2 in 2002, with an official sequel in the form of Kingdom Hearts II in 2006. Multiple other entries in the franchise have been published, predominantly for handheld systems, but fans have been eager for a proper sequel on the console for years.

[ Full Coverage: Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013 on Yahoo! Canada News ]

Many Disney characters, including Donald, Goofy, Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland, Jack Skellington, Maleficent, Jack Sparrow, Jiminy Cricket, Yen Sid, Chip 'n' Dale, Scrooge McDuck, Winnie the Pooh and many, many more, have featured prominently in previous games, and as IGN points out, Disney's recent acquisitions of Marvel Entertainment, Pixar, Studio Ghibli and Lucasfilm could result in some truly amazing character additions to Kingdom Hearts III. The prospect of Spiderman, Darth Vader, Buzz Lightyear and Totoro all popping up to help or hinder main character Roxas in this game is, admittedly, exciting and a little mind-boggling.

The game is listed as "in development" so there's no indication when we'll actually see the game (I wouldn't be surprised if we have to wait until next year's E3 for some more footage and information on the game). What we do know so far is that it will be released for the PlayStation 4, although it doesn't sound like it will be exclusive to the console.

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