When are we expecting news?

[Luminary]

Rebirth’s shorter marketing cycle made the game itself such a better experience for me. We didn’t have several months to a year to analyze a single trailer. So it was easier to sort of forget what I’d seen by the time the game came around. Also was pretty easy to skip the final trailer, which I’m thankful I did. I plan to do the same now for KH4.

I think Missing Link will help too with this for KH4 because we’ll be able to talk about its story updates when it is slower between KH4 trailers.

 

[Squood!]

...unrelated but anybody remember Anagram?

 

[Luminary]

...unrelated but anybody remember Anagram?

Yep…

Watching this trailer felt like looking up an ex and wondering at what they've done with their hair.

I’m curious to see if we start seeing some old names come back around once news picks up again.

EDIT: Oops I see there was a different user named Anagram that you’re probably referring to.

 

[Phoenix]

It'll be nice to see activity again. Dunno about you, but the KH podcasts I follow are just dying left and right. Even some ML news would feed a little bit of oxygen into the system.

 

[BufferAqua]

...unrelated but anybody remember Anagram?

Is it a good idea to bring him up? Just asking because some things are better left in the past, y’know.

 

[Squood!]

Is it a good idea to bring him up? Just asking because some things are better left in the past, y’know.

*shrug* All I rember was he got banned and he seemed real jaded. Bein around other jaded fans in places kinda just made me rember. But if it's a touchy subject I'll refrain from speakin' more

 

[BufferAqua]

*shrug* All I rember was he got banned and he seemed real jaded. Bein around other jaded fans in places kinda just made me rember. But if it's a touchy subject I'll refrain from speakin' more

All good, it’s just that I remember mods not wanting to discuss banned members a whole lot.

 

[Squood!]

OK, RPK randomly deciding to leak video games is quite a thing.

First it's Sonic Frontiers "2" which is corroborated by Midori

Then it's that KH show and 4's 2025 release....corroborated by no one which is expected, still think no one really cares enough to.

Then he talks about some 2026 game called Breakthrough which is seemingly corroborated by a logo and concept art.

 

[Luminary]

One of my few reservations about the early 2025 release idea is that the English recording should be taking place by now. With KH3, it was done around this time as the demo at the fan event had English voices. I remember there were a lot of hints that the voice actors had been working on the game prior to that. So far we’ve had nothing like that for KH4.

Have they just been better about keeping things under wraps? Or is it likely it hasn’t started yet?

Then it's that KH show and 4's 2025 release....corroborated by no one which is expected, still think no one really cares enough to.

DisInsider is also claiming an adaptation is still in development. So that part has been corroborated for whatever it is worth.

 

[Squood!]

One of my few reservations about the early 2025 release idea is that the English recording should be taking place by now. With KH3, it was done around this time as the demo at the fan event had English voices. I remember there were a lot of hints that the voice actors had been working on the game prior to that. So far we’ve had nothing like that for KH4.

Have they just been better about keeping things under wraps? Or is it likely it hasn’t started yet?



DisInsider is also claiming an adaptation is still in development. So that part has been corroborated for whatever it is worth.

I'd like to think they have been good at keeping things under wraps, and last we heard of the dev status was that development was being prioritized likely meaning they decided to put a more explicit focus on getting the game done. So getting to the point of VA work like how Remake Part 3 apparently is at now isn't that far-fetched.

As for DisInsider I've heard conflicting things bout their credibility. First it's that Schuler is apparently THE guy for Disney leaks/rumors and 99% of his scoops turn out true and that DisInsider is very reliable with Disney stuff and less so with Marvel as stated by r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers tier sourcing, and then it's that DisInsider is not credible in the slightest to where the Disney subreddit banned links to them from being posted. It's a strange thing, really.

 

[Chaser]

Sounds like they've cancelled smaller projects that were in development, including things due out within the next 12 months and might not focus on smaller titles anymore.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1785210102531977360

https://twitter.com/x/status/1785202095206924657

Don't know how this affects Missing-Link, or any other KH title that isn't 4 in the future but they'll probably be sticking to things that will make them money so maybe KH5 will be right after 4.

 

[Phoenix]

That is interesting. I wonder which properties got hit.

 

[Chaser]

I'm worried that the rumoured FFIX Remake was affected.

 

[Luminary]

I was typing this up earlier:

“If the projections of Rebirth’s poor sales are true, I think they would want to show whatever they have coming next sooner rather than later. Even if DQXII and KH4 are still a ways off, I think they’ll need to show something for one or both to prove they are making progress.”

Looks like the projections were correct then. Their results briefing should be in a couple weeks, so I’m interested to see what they say about the year ahead.

I hate that XVI and Rebirth performing poorly is going to lead to smaller titles being on the chopping block. It will be interesting to see how KH4 performs in comparison. I’m a little nervous about the franchise’s longevity if it doesn’t meet expectations considering licensed IPs need higher sales to make the company the same amount of profit as non-licensed game. Some companies like EA are moving away from licensed IPs for this very reason.

EDIT: Reading further into it, this was probably a part of the new president’s plan before Rebirth and even XVI’s release. They’ve been talking about streamlining the pipeline for some time. The sales may have still informed what and how much they decided to cut though.

I hope DQ3 Remake made it through, but it was probably one of the games set for the next 12 months which makes me a bit nervous. If FFIX did get cut, maybe they’ll rework it as a larger scale project.

I doubt Missing Link is affected since its beta was announced after this meeting took place in March. That may even have been part of why it was pushed back. It could have been on the table for consideration to be cut, but ultimately made it through.

 

[Chie]

"We should make LESS games" is such a disgusting position to take IMO. Evil CEO, enemy of mankind, etc.

My heart goes out to the developers whose projects were cancelled less than a year from release. I hope they all make games about "fuck Square Enix" ala Verum Rex.

 

[Idreamaboutcats]

"We should make LESS games" is such a disgusting position to take IMO. Evil CEO, enemy of mankind, etc.

My heart goes out to the developers whose projects were cancelled less than a year from release. I hope they all make games about "fuck Square Enix" ala Verum Rex.

To be fair, Disney isn’t exactly fairing well in the corporate vs. creative department as well; their much-awaited 100th year anniversary was a total bust, except like, GotG3? There was a reason Arendelle was very stifled in KH3.

I’m not really holding out for any news these days. I just hope it happens before my hair is grey, and I die of dementia, cancer, or cardiac arrest, whichever comes first.

Edit: I seriously hate the forum hosting service this site uses for making it hard to post gifs…

 

[MATGSY]

Well, there goes 1 of the Switch's biggest 3rd party supporters.

 

[Squood!]

Who knew PS5 exclusivity would actually hurt sales of Rebirth and XVI.

Unironically should have been either multiplat or cross-gen but then people would still go PS5 HAS NO GAEMS or groan at cross-gen being a thing. Really a lose-lose for multiple parties.

But anyway, Kiryu sounds like a man with a vision, alright. And part of that vision is focus on what will actively make bank.

 

[Luminary]

I hope they’ll be releasing their AAA titles at a faster cadence at least. I think it’s important to keep in mind that we don’t really know yet what games they cut. There have been a lot of failures in the past few years that I can understand why they would pull back. Sometimes less is more. I’d rather them focus on quality output rather than churning out a bunch of low quality work.

The past few years have seen several lackluster titles. Games like Balan Wonderworld, Babylon’s Fall, Forspoken, and Foamstars. I would think games like these, especially those that aren’t attached to an existing IP, would be the ones on the chopping block. I doubt FFIX, Missing Link, or DQ3 would be the first to be cut since they at least have brand recognition.

Of course I’m probably wrong and KH4 has been cancelled in favor of a Balan Wonderworld sequel exclusive to PS6.

I should also note that Missing Link wouldn’t be affected by this since it would fall under the mobile games segment and not HD games (I think.)

 

[Liodin]

Ok, conspiracy time.

I've seen a tweet with a clip, where Bill Farmer (Goofy) and two other actors are in a podcast, and play a game where they have to repeat what the first one says with the voice of one of their characters.

When I saw it, the first thing I thought was that they did it as marketing to get fans to watch the podcast. But I wanted to see the context of the clip, so I looked for that part in the video.

The section starts at 1:13:17, the KH at 1:13:52

"Sora, it's the heartless!"

So, it seems that the phrase comes from Bill Farmer and not from the producer or the host.
In 37 years of career, with all the things he has worked on, why would he say that specifically?

What if he recently had to do something related to KH, and that's why it came to his mind?