During a press conference held at the Games Convention 2003 in the east German city of Leipzig, Disney consumer product chairman Andy Mooney apparently confirmed that Kingdom Hearts II was indeed in development at Square Enix. This would be the first official confirmation following months of relative silence and uncertainty regarding a sequel to the highly popular collaboration between Disney and Square, which has sold more than 3.3 million copies worldwide to date. So far, Square Enix president Youichi Wada, while expressing his intention to turn Kingdom Hearts into a blockbuster series a la Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, had repeatedly mentioned negotiations with Disney were ongoing. Asked about a sequel to his hit title, character designer and director Tetsuya Nomura was even more tight-lipped a few months ago. According to Mooney, the company will officially unveil the title at the upcoming Tokyo Game Show.

A standard development cycle provided, Kingdom Hearts II will most likely not be available in Japan before late 2004.

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