‘Kingdom Hearts III’ Release Date Reportedly 2018 — Whether It’s Ready Or Not [RUMOR]

Kingdom Hearts III rumors are starting to pop up as E3 nears. The latest speculation arrives from known Square Enix insider, Jose Álamo. He says the game likely will be shown at E3 and release in 2018 — even if content has to be cut.

These rumors emerged via a series of tweets first posted by Álamo Monday afternoon. Quoting what he called a “reliable internal source,” he said if everything "follows the plan, there will be a Kingdom Hearts III trailer at E3 and the game will be released in 2018.” Quite curious, however, is what Álamo says next: “It will be in 2018 although not finished,” the translated Spanish text reads.

Read: Kingdom Hearts III Not Listed For 2017 Release In Square Enix Financials

That being said, those anticipating the game shouldn’t be worried that massive chunks of gameplay will be missing when the final product arrives. Cutting content prior to release is a necessary factor in game development as shipment deadlines draw near. All the source simply means is that Tetsuya Nomura’s team at Square Enix won’t be able to indulge every whim if it wishes to avoid delay. In that vein, it was also reiterated that Kingdom Hearts III is “not in development hell.” All parties involved simply want the game finished after what has been an extended creative cycle.

In fact, the source also mentions that even Nomura himself is ready to move on. The Kingdom Hearts III director was described as “more interested in what will happen after Kingdom Hearts III than the game itself.”

Before that future day comes, however, we allegedly can expect a few trailers to hype the release. In addition to a showing at E3, Álamo mentioned a second clip that could be made available by year’s end. It was originally planned to debut this April but could now be a highlight of this year’s PlayStation Experience or even D23 Japan. Likely due to creative changes, certain cuts will have been made.

Read: Kingdom Hearts III Director Unsure When We’ll Hear More About It

That’s obviously a lot of news to take in, and even Álamo is willing to concede that not all of it may be accurate. The information was reportedly given to him with a delay of a couple weeks and could thus be slightly outdated.

Even given that caveat, however, there’s reason for Kingdom Hearts fans to trust Álamo’s words more than most speculation-mongers. Most recently, he correctly predicted lots of Final Fantasy XV story details long before the game’s release. His sources at Square have checked out before and could feasibly do so again.

Based on what we’ve noticed in our close coverage of Kingdom Hearts III, a lot of what’s said here seems reasonably right. Not only did we not receive the trailer we were promised this winter, but the game’s release date was just recently pushed into Square’s 2018 fiscal year. To us the conclusions seem just reasonable enough to consider. Just like every pre-E3 rumor, though, it’s worth taking this one with a grain of salt.

Kingdom Hearts III is in development for PS4 and Xbox One.

What do you think of these Kingdom Hearts III rumors? What would you like to see during E3? Tell us in the comments section!