It has been five years since Square Enix first announced that Kingdom Hearts 3 was in development and fans have been waiting patiently for its release ever since. 

Kingdom Hearts 2 was released all the way back in 2006 and now the long wait is finally nearly at an end as Square Enix has confirmed that the third installment in the Kingdom Hearts franchise will be making its way out in Q4 2018, so some time between October and December this year. 

That was confirmed by Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda but he stopped short of giving the exact launch date.  The recent Financial Results Briefing did confirm though that an announcement would be made at next week's E3 conference in Los Angeles.

The briefing also revealed Square Enix's confidence in the success of Kingdom Hearts 3: "We expect FY2019/3 earnings to benefit from the launches of major titles including 'SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER' and 'KINGDOM HEARTS 3.' Our plan is to announce the details of our forthcoming lineup at E3 in June."

Kingdom Hearts 3 will be releasing to the PS4 and Xbox One and the latest installment will make use of Unreal Engine 4.  A recent demo in May with members of the media teased the return of Twilight Town and Olympus, and several new worlds including Tangled, Big Hero 6, Toy Story and Monsters Inc.  There are also two known summons so far, Wreck-It Ralph and My Little Mermaid's Aerial. 

E3 gets underway in LA on Monday, June 11, and will be livestreamed at 10 AM PDT/ 1PM EDT/ 6pm BST on YouTube, Twitch and Mixer. 

According to The Express, Square Enix will be doing a Kingdom Hearts 3 playable demo on the E3 2018 showfloor and it may well feature more about the Toy Story and Olympus worlds.  The reveal is also expected to include details of new characters and features.