Square Enix has a nasty habit of announcing games really early, and then not sharing any information about them for the years that it takes for them to release. This happened with Final Fantasy 15, this happened with Final Fantasy 12 and 13, and it is happening right now with Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Kingdom Hearts 3.

Speaking to French Publication Khisland Info, the producer of Square-Enix Shinji Hashimoto, who is working on both of those games, explained why Square Enix often takes time to release information at its own, excruciatingly slow pace, noting that while he understands that fans have high expectations, he also understands that it is contingent on Square to meet those expectations.

“You must know that for each future titles (i.e. FFVII Remake, KH3, etc), there is an established development planning,” he said. “So we must first consult it to check on the progress of the game, to be able to convey the most interesting and relevant information to the public. To give you an example, many events will take place this year. There is Final Fantasy’s 30th Anniversary event, Final Fantasy VII’s 20th Anniversary event as well as Kingdom Hearts’ 15th Anniversary event.

“Knowing this, it is obvious that fans are expecting a lot and we wish to show more in order to celebrate all of these events. Regarding Final Fantasy’s 30th Anniversary, we have many events planned in Japan, Final Fantasy XV’s DLCs, Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age Remaster and the new extension of Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood. We wish we could give as much information as possible but it is imperative that we have control on the calendar in order, so that we can reveal relevant information at the precise time.”

I do understand what he is saying- but given the understanding that Square feels the need to announce things as they happen, maybe it might be for the best for them to just… not announce games so early? As of right now, we have no release dates for either Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy 7 Remake (though we do know that the former is due out in late 2018, at least).