Hey folks, the official Square-Enix Members Site has been launched for the North Americans! You may pre-register for news, and a bunch of other bonuses by clicking the image below. If you’d like to represent Kingdomhearts3.net list it as your favorite site!

Also, don’t forget to join the forums! Whoever hasn’t joined is missing out on alot of fun and action!

Source - Square-Enix

The official North American Square-Enix site has been updated with information about the Japanese versions of the 3 upcoming games:

Square Enix, Co., Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan, Square Enix), a leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software and services, announced three new titles in the award-winning KINGDOM HEARTS series at the Tokyo Game Show 2007 held in Makuhari Messe. The new titles are KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 Days for the Nintendo DS™, KINGDOM HEARTS Birth by Sleep for the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, and KINGDOM HEARTS coded for mobile phones. These titles are currently only confirmed for release in Japan. Release in other territories will be determined at a later date.

KINGDOM HEARTS is a fresh and original series of role-playing games created by the collaboration of The Walt Disney Company’s game development affiliate, Disney Interactive Studios, and Square Enix. The first installment, released in 2002, has been followed up by two chart-topping sequels. The immense popularity of the series has earned worldwide shipments of over 11 million copies in only five and a half years.

KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 Days
Developer: Square Enix Co., Ltd. / h.a.n.d. Inc.
Publisher: Square Enix Co., Ltd.
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: RPG
ESRB: TBD
Ship Date: TBD

The untold story of another hero.
Organization XIII, Number 13, Roxas

In KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 Days, you will explore a variety of Disney worlds in not only single-player mode, but also in multiplayer missions made possible by the unique networking features of the Nintendo DS.

-Twilight Town-
Roxas and Axel were watching the sunset from their usual spot on the station’s clock tower after a long day of collecting “hearts” from the Heartless, as ordered by their organization. When their daily work ended, they often spent their evenings there. They talked about the day’s work and other things over ice cream.

“Do you know why the sun looks red as it sinks below the horizon? It’s because among the countless colors comprising light, red travels the greatest distance.”

“You’re just trying to show off, Axel!”

It was idle chatter between two boys without hearts.
This is the untold story of Organization XIII’s Roxas.

Staff

Director: Tetsuya Nomura (FINAL FANTASY V-VIII, X, FINAL FANTASY VII, ADVENT CHILDREN, KINGDOM HEARTS)

Co-director: Tomohiro Hasegawa (FINAL FANTASY VIII, X, KINGDOM HEARTS series)

Producer: Patrick Chen (KINGDOM HEARTS series)

Executive Producer: Shinji Hashimoto (KINGDOM HEARTS series)

KINGDOM HEARTS Birth by Sleep
Developer: Square Enix Co., Ltd.
Publisher: Square Enix Co., Ltd.
Platform: PSP
Genre: RPG
ESRB: TBD
Ship Date: TBD

It was an awakening that would signal the beginning of the KINGDOM HEARTS saga.

KINGDOM HEARTS Birth by Sleep is the tale of a new trio of heroes, told across three scenarios utilizing the groundbreaking technology of the PSP. Exciting new features will be introduced on top of the traditional controls, game system, and visual style of its predecessors.

Long before Sora took up the Keyblade, there were other Keyblade masters. One of these masters, Xehanort, disappeared one day along with his apprentice. This event proved to be a foreshadowing of great disaster to come. Aware of the threat, another master ordered his three apprentices to seek out Xehanort and his cohort.

Staff

Director: Tetsuya Nomura (FINAL FANTASY V-VIII, X, FINAL FANTASY VII, ADVENT CHILDREN, KINGDOM HEARTS)

Co-director: Tai Yasue (KINGDOM HEARTS Re: Chain of Memories)

Producer: Patrick Chen (KINGDOM HEARTS series)

Co-producer: Yoichi Yoshimoto (Musashi Series, KINGDOM HEARTS CHAIN OF MEMORIES)

Executive Producer: Shinji Hashimoto (KINGDOM HEARTS series)

KINGDOM HEARTS coded
Developer: Square Enix Co., Ltd.
Publisher: Square Enix Co., Ltd.
Platform: Mobile Phones (devices/carriers TBD)
Genre: RPG
ESRB: TBD
Ship Date: TBD

A Disney universe as vast as the mobile network awaits you.

In KINGDOM HEARTS coded, you will journey through a variety of Disney worlds on an exciting adventure brought to life by advanced mobile phone technology and gorgeous graphics never before seen on the platform. This marks the first collaboration between Square Enix and the Walt Disney Internet Group.

After the events of KINGDOM HEARTS, Jiminy Cricket returned to Disney Castle to organize his journal. While he arranged his records, his eyes fell upon a page with a mysterious message.

We must return to free them from their torment.

However, no matter how hard Jiminy tried to recall the source of the text, he couldn’t remember. So the King digitized the contents of the journal and started an investigation. Within the world traced from the contents of Jiminy’s Journal, a boy awoke on Destiny Island. It was the beginning of a new quest for a virtual Sora.

Staff

Director: Tetsuya Nomura (FINAL FANTASY V-VIII, X, FINAL FANTASY VII, ADVENT CHILDREN, KINGDOM HEARTS)

Co-director: Hajime Tabata (BEFORE CRISIS –FINAL FANTASY VII–, CRISIS CORE –FINAL FANTASY VII-)

Producer: Kakuko Obinata (KINGDOM HEARTS series)

Associate Producer: Kousei Itou (BEFORE CRISIS -FINAL FANTASY VII-)

Executive Producer: Shinji Hashimoto (KINGDOM HEARTS series)

*All of the above information applies only to the Japanese version of the games announced.

Hi guys, this info just came here from the forums, and so, without explaining, here it is:

Quite a lot of new information was brought up; first, this is the new artwork:

Second, Square-Enix released trailers of the new games. But these trailers were shown privately, so all we have are descriptions. Here they are along with the new logos.

When the video begins, we are introduced with a series of images, followed by the words “Kingdom Hearts: New Concepts and Game Titles.” Right after this, the ending to Kingdom Hearts 2 plays, followed by the phrases “The secret ending has been dealt with, and the worlds extend once again” and “flow”.

The screen fades back in to Jiminy Cricket and the phrase “Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories”. He is peering into his journal, noticing a phrase that he cannot remember writing. It reads “You need to return, to heal the wounds”. This phrase seems to alert Jiminy in some way, as he runs off to report the finding to King Mickey. The King is startled by the discovery, but only replies with “Only he is the one who can solve it.”

We fade in and out to Sora standing on the beach at Destiny Islands. He is wearing his Kingdom Hearts 1 style clothing, but he is only shown as computer data being transmitted.

When the image of Sora disappears, a battle scene commences. As Sora is moving blocks around to finish a puzzle game, heartless are attacking from all angles. The gameplay mechanics seem very odd. After the puzzle is finished, a command called “Debugging” appears on the screen. After being activated, Sora moves extremely quickly and then vanishes.

The last scene includes Sora and Mickey in Traverse Town. Mickey says to no one in particular “I was here on that day.” and “Let’s speak truly.”. We are then presented with the name of the game: Kingdom Hearts: Coded. It has been announced to be a mobile phone game.

We are introduced with the scene where Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories had came to an end, and are then confronted with the phrase “The other side attached to Sora still sleeps”, along with “The mind comes back whenever they touch.”

The video then focuses upon Roxas and Axel, sitting atop the clock tower in Twilight Town. This seems to be the same scene from Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix+. Soon after, the video shows Roxas being invited into Organization XIII. He is being greeted by all, and introduces himself, and they do the same to him. Then the scene fades into Roxas actually joining the Organization.

Following this is a short clip of Mickey talking about Axel, and Saix near Roxas. Roxas is shown pulling out both of his keyblades, and it moves into gameplay. The gameplay confirms definitively that you may play with Roxas, Axel, Saix and Xigbar.

Xemnas then mentions something very interesting. He explains that a 14th member has joined their Organization, and that this member is female. This scene is quickly followed by the title of the game: “Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days” and a whispering Roxas saying “I will disappear from this world in 151 days”
This game is for the beloved Nintendo DS.

We are then confronted by a young boy who looks like Roxas conversing with another young boy with black hair. Their surroundings seem to resemble Hallow Bastion (Radiant Garden). The name “Ven” is thrown outward, referring to the boy who looks like Roxas.

The scene change various times before stopping at an image of the Old Man from the Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix+ Secret Ending. He is called “Master Xehanort” by Terra. Soon after, Terra summons his keyblade and the screen changes.

Various worlds are shown, and one of which is familiar to us all. “Olympus Coliseum” is making another comeback, followed by a brand new world, that of which resembles Sleeping Beauty.

The video then changes back to Terra battling against a dark figure, whom you can tell is male. This is the same man from the Secret Ending of Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix+ that the Old Man creates. Terra is able to forcably get the man’s helmet off, but his face is concealed.

King Mickey is shown summoning his keyblade, and then the scene changes very quickly to Terra on a beach. He seems to be watching two boys play in the ocean. After he rests his weapon into the ground, the two boys he was watching are clearer and they look like Sora and Riku. Soon after, Terra says “Please don’t depend on me, just erase me… friend.” The phrase “Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep” arises, and it is revealed this game is for the PSP.

Note: It has been rumored the DS game is being co-developed by Hand (Chocobo Tales) and the PSP game is being developed by the Crisis Core team. This is not a confirmation, just speculation.

Source: Kairi (KH3.org member)

Source: Famitsu

Square-Enix have been updating their site for the Tokyo Game Show 2007, and the Official Site about the event has been updated too:

The Square-Enix site has wallpapers (although none related to Kingdom Hearts) to download and use too if you wish - Just go to the far left or right, and then up or down respectively. It’s a very interactive site with many extra features.

Kingdom Hearts doesn’t feature in the games line-up (as many people have mentioned in the comments), but that is due to the fact that the new project hasn’t been officially “announced” yet. The new video should be shown in the Closed Mega Theatre at some point over the weekend. There won’t be playable demos.

For more information, please look at the Tokyo Game Show 2007 News Post.

In other news, Yoko Shimomura has updated her blog to say that 4 Kingdom Hearts pieces will be performed at “Press Start 2007 - Symphony of Games”. The concert is being performed on the 17th and 22nd of September. (If you’re in Japan, I’d recommend going to the 17th September concert before going to the Tokyo Game Show.) One of these 4 pieces is said to be a new piece that hasn’t been heard before! The 4 pieces will form the finale of the concert. (Fans of the Black Mages will be pleased to know that they will be performing at the first of the two concerts.)

Also, apologies for the massive delay in news - For those who don’t already know, the Official Square-Enix Shop is now open:

Firstly, sorry about the slight delay in posting this, as I have been away for the weekend. Here is an interview with Nomura discussing the minor details about the future Kingdom Hearts side-project game. As well as discussing details of the game, I believe we might have a little unofficial confirmation that there will be a Kingdom Hearts 3, which I will discuss after the interview. Here is the interview:

About the new Kingdom Hearts title that will be announced after summer this year (2007), will that be a direct sequel?
Tetsuya Nomura: “Hmm…I’m not sure how much I can say. I’ll start of by saying that it’s not Kingdom Hearts 3.”

So this game will be a side story?
Tetsuya Nomura: “That’s right. My own feelings are that I would like to give Sora a break from large adventures for a little while. So I’m thinking of making the next game’s story focus on other characters.”

So by a little while, do you mean that Sora’s journey from Kingdom Hearts 2 hasn’t finished?
Tetsuya Nomura: “Yes. If you’re talking about the mysteries that started from Kingdom Hearts 1, then those were all revealed. In the ending of Kingdom Hearts II, there was a scene where Sora received a letter from the King; for Sora, I would like you to consider this as a new beginning. The truth is, until the very end, I was considering whether or not to include a scene showing them setting off on a journey after reading the letter.”

So, let’s talk about this new story, which doesn’t have Sora as the main character. What sort of story will it be?
Tetsuya Nomura: “Well, I need to start with the story depicted in a Birth by Sleep. Aside from that, there’s the story of how the King found his keyblade in the world of darkness and other things like that. Myself, one of the things I most want to do is to give Roxas more of a role to play. I think it would be interesting to flesh out more of the year he spent between his birth and disappearance. Or making Riku the main character, and writing about his desperate fight while Sora was asleep, and things like that. You get the impression that Riku summoned Roxas to a place of shadows, and that Riku is a master of shadows, so I would like to give him more exploration in the game.”

Will there be anything different in the game system?
Tetsuya Nomura: “I’d like to try something a little different to the previous games in the KH series. I’m not just talking about the next game, more about the next project, so I can’t say that it will just be one game (laughs). For the Kingdom Hearts series, being made with our company and Disney, both companies have things in mind that we would like to make reality, so there’s always at least two things we want to do.”

What platform does it look like the next game will be released on?
Tetsuya Nomura: “Hmm… Probably a hand-held platform. Right now we’re working on titles for the PSP (FFVII Crisis Core), Nintendo DS (This Wonderful World) and for mobile phones (MONOTONE), so I wouldn’t be surprised if it were on any of those platforms.”

Is there any chance that this game may be released on multiple platforms?
Tetsuya Nomura: “We haven’t considered that in the development. If possible, I would like to make a system that suits the platform. But in contrast, in terms of ideas, I would want ideas that could be released on any platform.”

The more I hear about the next game, the more exciting it sounds, but for the fans the first thing to do is to see KH2 Final Mix’s secret movie isn’t it?
Tetsuya Nomura: “Yes. I’m worried that we made the conditions for getting the secret movie too hard, but through reading this guide, I hope the readers will be able to see the secret movie. Finding a way to defeat (the new boss) is tough, but I’ve seen it done, so I know it’s not impossible (laughs). If you’re able to see the new secret movie and turn your thoughts to the next Kingdom Hearts, I’d be very happy.”

END OF INTERVIEW

So, perhaps not too much new information, but I think we can take Nomura’s comment that I have highlighted above where he says he would like Sora to have a break from large adventures can be taken to indicate that there will be a Kingdom Hearts III at some point in the future. He doesn’t say he wants to change the format forever, simply that Sora should have a break. I may be foolish, but I take this as a bit of a slip, and that there will more likely than ever, be a Kingdom Hearts 3.

If you don’t mind and find this useful, please digg this article!

With so little Kingdom Hearts News around and plenty of people wanting to get their hands on a Keyblade, I decided I should show you where to do so. Unfortunately, this only applies to people in the US (which means I can’t get any of this so I don’t know the true quality).

Although there are real swords on the market at very expensive prices, there are some very reasonably priced replicas of Keyblades around, and Amazon.com currently has them on sale cheaper than anywhere else, including their supplier “Top Swords”:

Sora’s Keyblade (14lb) Price: $25.49 All Metal Construction Hanging Chain Included 35” Overall Length Shipping Weight: 14lb

Sora’s Keyblade (12lb) Price: $24.49 Unknown Material Unknown Overall Length Shipping Weight: 12lb

As for other Kingdom Hearts Merchandise, there’s a site that has imported items from the Official Square-Enix Store, including some of the items that were available at the Square-Enix Party 2007, and has them available at reasonable US prices:

GKWorld

Other than confirming again that the next game will NOT be called “Kingdom Hearts III”, it has now been confirmed in Dengeki PS Magazine that:

Unfortunately, this may mean very little news for a couple of months, but we’ll still keep you up-to-date on anything new!

• TheWertle is still working on translating the Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ Ultimania book. We’ll hopefully be getting more scans of it as well. If you want to buy it yourself, you can get it at Play-Asia, but bear in mind that it’s 511 pages almost all in Japanese.
• We are also still getting translations on Kingdom Hearts: Another Report. The Proto Type Report should be the next to be translated.
• More Kingdom Hearts Novels are going on sale soon, apparently possibly with a little bit of information that we haven’t found out yet, but this is unconfirmed.
• After the great feedback on the “Fate of the Unknown” Piano Sheet Music, I’m working on the requests of other arrangements for that piece, as well as creating piano versions of other music from the Kingdom Hearts series by Yoko Shimomura. The Kingdom Hearts OST Complete is still available.
• The Square-Enix USA Online Merchandise Store should be opening soon, so if you’re a big fan, sign up to find out when the store opens.
• The Kingdom Hearts Complete Visual Art Book will be on sale in July if you wish to pre-order it now.
• If there are any unanswered questions about this site or about the Kingdom Hearts series that I might know, please ask in the Frequently Asked Questions section and read the Summary of Kingdom Hearts Interviews.

The Square-Enix Shop in Japan has now put up King Mickey’s Keyblade for sale, and also shows us its name: “Kingdom Chain: Dark Side“. Click the picture above to go to the shop page.

There are also two more scans from pages of the Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ Ultimania book from Reflet. Click them to enlarge them:

This weekend (26th & 27th May), the London MCM (Movie, Comic, Media) Expo May 2007 will take place at ExCeL London, Royal Victoria Dock, Docklands, London, E16 1XL. There will be a Square-Enix stall (5704) which will include playable demonstrations of:

• Final Fantasy III (Nintendo DS)
• Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales (Nintendo DS)
• Valkyrie Profile Lenneth (PSP)
• Final Fantasy XI (Xbox 360)
• Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
• Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)
• Dragon Quest: The Journey of the Cursed King (PS2)

Bobby Edner the voice of VAAN in Square Enix’s latest instalment of the world wide hit Final Fantasy is set to attend THE London MCM Expo 26-27 May 07.

Watch out for further details which will include a daily autograph signing for fans of FF XII. As well as being the voice of ‘VAAN’ Bobby has appeared in many movies and tv shows including Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, Charmed, The Pretender, Seven Days, Touched by an Angel & JAG to name a but a few!