Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy 7 remake game director Tetsuya Nomura thinks that both games were announced too early. Nomura spoke in an interview about the difficulties that come with internet rumours and pressure from fans and admitted that the announcements came too soon despite it being necessary.
Kingdom Hearts 3 was announced very early into development, and in an interview with Italian site Multiplayer (translated by Kingdom Hearts Insider), Nomura discussed his concerns and the difficulties surrounding this. “I understand why some companies wait as long as possible, and I definitely think it’s a good thing for them,” he said. “But in our case, we receive pressure from the fans even when we do not announce anything. They’re always asking us ‘are you working on this?’ or ‘why don’t you make a sequel for that?’ Even after the announcement, the situation does not change, because then they’ll move onto asking us “when will it release?” or “when will you show a new trailer?”
In the same interview, Nomura expressed the same concerns over the early announcement of the Final Fantasy 7 remake. “I am well aware of the fact that we announced it too early,” he said, but expressed that keeping it under wraps would have proven difficult. “even in the industry, word was beginning to spread that we were working on the game, so we just decided not to keep it more secret and officially reveal it.”
It’s always challenging to figure out when to officially announce a project as prolific as Kingdom Hearts 3 or Final Fantasy 7 remake. With such a huge number of fans and a lot of hype for the projects, leaks and misinformation are inevitable. Early announcements are one way to curb this issue, but it’s not ideal, and Nomura seems to be aware of that. Kingdom Hearts 3 is out on January 29 on Xbox One and PS4, and while we’re still not sure when we’ll see the Final Fantasy 7 remake, it likely won’t be for some time.
