So, I saw Cynical's/TheGamersJoint's video on how Square intends to catch newbies up on Kingdom Hearts, but there was one giant elephant in the room he didn't talk about. The Xbox One version of III!
Now, it may be a divisive topic amongst more hardened KH fans, Playstation fanboys, etc, but I firmly believe Namura, after finishing KH3, will devote time & resources at Square to port the 1.5, 2.5, & 2.8 Collections over to the Xbox One &, possibly, the Switch (along with 3 for the Switch). The question would have to be, though, is on the timing. As we all know, hopefully, Square Enix isn't a console-exclusive company, nor have they ever been. They've just gone with hardware specs, which, for the longest time, was Playstation. Ever since FF7, they've published their games to Playstation. After the Xbox 360 came out, they've published games to that system as well. However, Nintendo's been pretty restricted to their handhelds, which makes sense. However, with the advent of the Switch, Square could take advantage of the people who love to play console games on the go. They would also most likely want to still hit a lot of players on another console family, which would allow for a port to the console. Frankly, I'm surprised that that wasn't the plan already. Some people have tried to convince me that it was due to the earlier games being console exclusive, but that just doesn't add up whatsoever under scrutiny. There's also the old chestnut of the fact that to understand ANYTHING in KH, you NEED to play through the installments as they were released. So, making sure a port of the collections come out for Xbox One as well after 3 wraps development is best both for business & new players' sakes of wrapping their heads around this mess.
Now, when could it be done? If they weren't so involved with FF7's remake, I'd think they could set aside some developers to port the games to the system for a summer 2018 release by now with Namura supervising it, or hire another company to do it for them, again, with Namura supervising. If we go by what Namura has said towards these possible ports himself, they'd most likely get around to it after III's development wrapped, which will most likely take until towards the end of the year. Though, given the latest development with James Woods letting it slip that the voice acting for the English dub is under way, it seems that they'll be done quicker than we previously thought.
So, if all they have to do is playtest & polish the game more, then most of the dev team won't be necessary or won't be working on the game too much longer, so the port could still happen within that timeframe. Any earlier & we run the risk of something similar to what happened with 1.5+2.5 a year ago, where the 60fps patch caused terrible physics problems, where the games could need several patches to run properly, which wouldn't exactly be very good for business. Any later than that & Square could run the risk of competing with themselves, since they have 3 games coming out later this year, with Tomb Raider & Dragon Quest XI, which are scheduled for September, & KH3, as well as 5 other games, some of which are just for the Switch (including The World Ends With You's port, which I really don't get why it's just for the Switch). Either it comes out BEFORE KH3, which could be done if they put the right amount of manpower behind it, or in 2019, which could be the more likely option.
So, when could they release it in 2019? Well, that all depends on when they release KH3. Since they have yet to actually announce the release date, my guess is that it'll come out either in October, November, or December. Most likely sometime in November, since October probably might not be the best month to release the game, plus Black Friday & Christmas shopping & all that. My best guess is early or mid November at the earliest for 3. Then they can release the collections 2 years directly after they released the PS4 ports, in January &/or March 2019, which wouldn't be too bad. However, there IS another option...
Release the Collections either slightly ahead of, or at the same time as 3. This could be doable & would make sure everybody who's never played the previous games, or the people that have, get them on the Xbox One to play beforehand to understand the storyline. I mean, that was basically the conceit of putting them on PS4 in the first place.
What could be the answer?
Now, it may be a divisive topic amongst more hardened KH fans, Playstation fanboys, etc, but I firmly believe Namura, after finishing KH3, will devote time & resources at Square to port the 1.5, 2.5, & 2.8 Collections over to the Xbox One &, possibly, the Switch (along with 3 for the Switch). The question would have to be, though, is on the timing. As we all know, hopefully, Square Enix isn't a console-exclusive company, nor have they ever been. They've just gone with hardware specs, which, for the longest time, was Playstation. Ever since FF7, they've published their games to Playstation. After the Xbox 360 came out, they've published games to that system as well. However, Nintendo's been pretty restricted to their handhelds, which makes sense. However, with the advent of the Switch, Square could take advantage of the people who love to play console games on the go. They would also most likely want to still hit a lot of players on another console family, which would allow for a port to the console. Frankly, I'm surprised that that wasn't the plan already. Some people have tried to convince me that it was due to the earlier games being console exclusive, but that just doesn't add up whatsoever under scrutiny. There's also the old chestnut of the fact that to understand ANYTHING in KH, you NEED to play through the installments as they were released. So, making sure a port of the collections come out for Xbox One as well after 3 wraps development is best both for business & new players' sakes of wrapping their heads around this mess.
Now, when could it be done? If they weren't so involved with FF7's remake, I'd think they could set aside some developers to port the games to the system for a summer 2018 release by now with Namura supervising it, or hire another company to do it for them, again, with Namura supervising. If we go by what Namura has said towards these possible ports himself, they'd most likely get around to it after III's development wrapped, which will most likely take until towards the end of the year. Though, given the latest development with James Woods letting it slip that the voice acting for the English dub is under way, it seems that they'll be done quicker than we previously thought.
So, if all they have to do is playtest & polish the game more, then most of the dev team won't be necessary or won't be working on the game too much longer, so the port could still happen within that timeframe. Any earlier & we run the risk of something similar to what happened with 1.5+2.5 a year ago, where the 60fps patch caused terrible physics problems, where the games could need several patches to run properly, which wouldn't exactly be very good for business. Any later than that & Square could run the risk of competing with themselves, since they have 3 games coming out later this year, with Tomb Raider & Dragon Quest XI, which are scheduled for September, & KH3, as well as 5 other games, some of which are just for the Switch (including The World Ends With You's port, which I really don't get why it's just for the Switch). Either it comes out BEFORE KH3, which could be done if they put the right amount of manpower behind it, or in 2019, which could be the more likely option.
So, when could they release it in 2019? Well, that all depends on when they release KH3. Since they have yet to actually announce the release date, my guess is that it'll come out either in October, November, or December. Most likely sometime in November, since October probably might not be the best month to release the game, plus Black Friday & Christmas shopping & all that. My best guess is early or mid November at the earliest for 3. Then they can release the collections 2 years directly after they released the PS4 ports, in January &/or March 2019, which wouldn't be too bad. However, there IS another option...
Release the Collections either slightly ahead of, or at the same time as 3. This could be doable & would make sure everybody who's never played the previous games, or the people that have, get them on the Xbox One to play beforehand to understand the storyline. I mean, that was basically the conceit of putting them on PS4 in the first place.
What could be the answer?