How Kingdom Hearts 3 Leaks May Change Future Game Releases

According to Kingdom Hearts III head Tetsuya Nomura, the pre-launch leaks of Square Enix’s highly anticipated game may lead to changes in how Square Enix releases games in the future. According to Nomura...

The above comes from an interview between Nomura and Japanese gaming magazine, Famitsu (via Kotaku), in regards to some copies of Kingdom Hearts III that leaked before the game’s actual launch. Nomura explained that only four copies were unaccounted for, but he considers that four copies too many. You can’t blame the guy for being so disappointed. That would hold true for a game that only spent a couple years in development, and Kingdom Hearts III was in the works for more than a decade.

When the copies of KH3 got out several weeks ago, Nomura hopped on the internet to encourage folks to avoid spoilers and, more importantly, not help spread them. He also noted that the game’s biggest surprises, including a secret movie, were post-launch downloads that could not even be seen after playing the leaked copies of the game.

So what’s the solution? According to Nomura, it might be to just avoid worldwide launches altogether. Doing a worldwide launch means there are oodles more moving parts in the process and more ways for copies of the game to turn up missing. Nomura’s thinking seems to be that, if a game launches in one region at a time, there’s less of a chance that folks will get their hands on the game before they should.

Of course, this seems like the exact opposite of what Nomura wants in one big regard. If he’s worried about folks getting spoiled on a game because of leaks, it stands to reason even more will get spoiled if a game launches in stages. Using Kingdom Hearts III as an example, if it launched in Japan first, spoilers from legitimate copies of the game would flood the internet long before the game launched in other territories.

But, again, I can’t really fault the guy for his concerns and frustration. His team poured an insane amount of time into making KH3, all while working with one of the most tight-lipped and influential media machines on the planet: Disney. Pile on fan expectations after all these years of waiting and it’s a wonder the guy isn’t on a one-man crusade against leakers in general.

As for how to get the game’s secret movie, Nomura offered a pretty big hint in the original interview. There are items in the game called “Lucky Marks,” which are everyday items that just so happen to look like Mickey Mouse. You’ll want to find as many of those as possible while adventuring through the worlds of Frozen, Tangled, Pirates of the Caribbean and beyond, and be sure to take a picture of them while you’re at it.