Final Fantasy 15 and Kingdom Hearts 3 Release Date; One for 2016 and the Other For 2017?

By Mark Rollins

Square Enix has a problem, and it is a good one to have.  Since they own Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, two of the biggest gaming franchises of all time, they will make even more as they will offer new sequels with Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III very soon.   There is a lot of news devoted to Final Fantasy, and not the Final Fantasy VII Port and Remake.  There is also some news devoted to Kingdom Hearts III, but not as much.  This is what is known about Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III release dates. 

Parent Herald reports that Final Fantasy XV is due for definite release next year, and there will even be a new special edition of a Final Fantasy controller being revealed as well.  Given those facts, this could signal a Christmas release of the game as it is usually smart to bundle together a special edition controller and hit game into one package for the holidays.  Of course, the game is coming for the PS4 as well.  That release date is going to be announced on March 2016, at some special event. 

For those that want some sneak preview, there is always the demo of Episode Duscae. According to Stevivor, there might be another update to the demo.  This new demo could be an update of the current one, or it might be something entirely new. 

Final Fantasy XV
A scene from the Episode Duscae demo from Final Fantasy XV

There has been a lot of news since the game director Hajime Tabata has discussed certain elements of the game on VGTime, a Chinese website.  For example, there could be some content like underwater combat and airships could come to the game, but in the form of DLC. 

As for Kingdom Hearts III, most of the news devoted to this game is about improved graphics and what Disney world will be revealed in this incarnation.  Many were pointing to 2016 as the year that Kingdom Hearts III would finally be out.  The issue with that is there has been less news of Kingdom Hearts III compared to Final Fantasy 15.  A recent report from Design and Trend has stated that its release date might not appear until 2017, and possibly late in that year. 

There is a report on Realty Today that the Amazon listing of the Kingdom Hearts III game for the Xbox One and PS4 is available for pre-order, and it says that it will ship by December 31, 2016.  That is a placeholder for the game, and most video games have that end of the year placeholder on Amazon.  In fact, Final Fantasy 15 had that same placeholder, but with 2015 as the date last year. 

It should be noted that Amazon also had Kingdom Hearts III listed as a release date of January 2, 2017.  Amazon has reported that this is the next shipping day after that, so technically, the game wouldn't be officially available then.  That makes a lot of sense, because most popular games would rather have a holiday release rather than an early January release. 

We have spoken earlier that it is unlikely that Square Enix would choose to release their hot properties of Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III at the same time.  They are more likely to release Final Fantasy XV next year, probably around summer or the holiday season.  That gives players a chance to enjoy the game and "wear it out" so they can have the next offering of Kingdom Hearts III in 2017. 

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