'Kingdom Hearts 3' news, release date: 'Kingdom Hearts 2.8 HD Final Chapter Prologue' to precede game

An image from "Kingdom Hearts 3"Square Enix

No more installments will be released in between "Kingdom Hearts 2.8 HD Final Prologue" and the long-awaited "Kingdom Hearts 3," which will both come out next year.

This was confirmed by "Kingdom Hearts" producer Shinji Hashimoto during his talk at the Lucca Comics and Games 2016 held in Italy.

This means that the "Kingdom Hearts 2.9" rumored to be on the way will not see the light of day nor does it even exist. The plot of "Kingdom Hearts 2.8" should seamlessly continue to "Kingdom Hearts 3."

This does not come as a shock seeing that developer Square Enix has said that their focus will be on "Kingdom Hearts 3" after the release of "Kingdom Hearts 2.8."

"Like I said about not showing much of Kingdom Hearts III at this time, there's always a right time for everything. We want each announcement to be special," game director Tetsuya Nomura told Games Beat a few months back.

"We want to exceed our fans' expectations and we want to do it in a good way. We want to plan things out, the way we announce things. It's not that stressful, at least for me," he went on to say.

He also commented on releasing a bundle where 2.8, 1.5, 2.5 "Kingdom Hearts" titles will ever be released in one package that could end up being "Kingdom Hearts 2.9."

"We haven't really decided on bundles or how we'll set up things for how we'll sell those. No decision or announcement has been made," he said.

However, Hashimoto's comments show that no more installments or compilations are coming after "Kingdom Hearts 2.8" and before "Kingdom Hearts 3."

As for the release date, Square Enix keeps itself tight-lipped on the matter. Despite this, the hype remains on a high with "Kingdom Hearts 3" being the ninth most anticipated title for next year, as per Famitsu.

Rumors have it that a March 2017 release could be in the cards.