'Kingdom Hearts 3' Release Date: 5 Reasons Why Game Won't Launch In 2015

1. Switching engines - In October 2014, Tetsuya Nomura revealed that the game had switched to using Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4, due to a "variety of reasons." He also added that the development team has the full support of Epic, and the change would not hinder the game's development. The games co-director Tai Yasue also revealed the switch would be easy but also not, saying:

"It was easy to shift to, but at the same time though, there was a lot of stuff specific to Kingdom Hearts that we couldn't really do on Unreal 4 at first. So, we had a lot of co-operation from Epic - they did a lot - at the same time we were doing a lot of customization of the engine as well, to suit our needs."

Whether the switch was easy or not is yet to be determined as we haven't seen any new content from "KH3."

2. Voice actors death - According to KpopStarz, the passing of Leonard Nimoy and Chikao Otsuka may have set production back. Prior to their deaths, the actors providing the voice for series' bad guy Master Xehanort. Both died at the start of 2015. It is not clear whether the voice recording for the actors was finished before their deaths.

According to reports there are rumors that Square Enix may bring Nimoy's and Otsuka's voice to "KH3" as a final tribute. Whether the developers are able to do this is a matter of debate.

Square Enix may also decide to use replacement actors instead, which again will bring delays. Then again, the company could just nix Xehanort from "Kingdom Hearts 3."

3. Director focuses - For most of 2014 "KH3's" production was on the back burner. The titles director, Tetsuya Nomura, was in charge of not only the "Kingdom Hearts" game but also the coming "Final Fantasy XV" title, which is set to launch first. With Square Enix's focus on "FFXV" the "Kingdom Hearts" game had to wait.

Back in September 2014, it was announced that Nomura would no longer be the director of "FFXV," which leaves him more time to work on "Kingdom Hearts 3."

4. No demo - Typically a game will be preceded by a demo before it is launched. This indicates that the production of the title is just about complete and the company is putting the finishing touches on it.

So far Square Enix has yet to reveal any kind of demo or gameplay for "Kingdom Hearts 3" which isn't a good sign. Reports say the earliest glimpse of the game will arrive August 2015 at D23 Expo.

If it's any consolation the arrival of "Final Fantasy XV's" "Episode Duscae" demo means the release date for the title is close behind. And since "FFXV" was set to release before "KH3" we are that much closer to getting our release date for the latter.