Square Enix has a scheduled press conference for Monday that includes a stacked line up of games such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Avengers, and yes Kingdom Hearts. For some reason, the publisher took it upon themselves to announce a firm release date for the Disney/Final Fantasy mashup RPG Kingdom Hearts III last night. The game will now be released January 29, 2019.

(Courtesy of the official Kingdom Hearts Twitter account)

While the game never had a firm 2018 release date, Square Enix had previously stated Kingdom Hearts III would release this year. It’s at your discretion whether or not that counts as a delay? In a follow-up tweet, the account simply stated they needed a few more weeks to polish the game.

We’ve announced the release day for KINGDOM HEARTS III ahead of E3 at the KINGDOM HEARTS Orchestra -World Tour-. I’m sorry that we’re asking for a little more time than initially planned. Please look forward to other information, including a few trailers at E3. Thank you – Nomura

So Square Enix is making the wait for one of the most anticipated sequels in gaming a few weeks longer. I would rather a developer take every necessary step to put out something we rarely see in games anymore; a true finished product. Polished with as little bugs as possible. We already know Kingdom Hearts III is packing more Disney goodness with Pixar’s Toy Story and Wreck-It Ralph content. From what we’ve played of the game so far, it’s more likely they’ll hit a January release date than EA hitting a February one with Anthem.

E3 2018 is off to such a weird start… and it technically hasn’t even begun yet.