With no details about a "Kingdom Hearts 3" release date arriving this year during the 2016 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), fans and analysts have been wondering when they will get news about it. However, in recent interviews, Tai Yasue, who is working as co-director on the game, has stated that the upcoming "Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue" is going to be important to "Kingdom Hearts 3." 

More importantly, Yasue shared with a website that "Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue" is going to release first as it brings together three portions that are very important to the next game in the series, which is titled "Kingdom Hearts 3." With these three portions being fully explored in "Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue" that's due to release in December of this year, players will be fully prepared for getting into the action-packed adventure of  the next Kingdom Hearts game. 

Meanwhile, Yasue also provided more details about the upcoming "Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue" game and described how the "0.2: Birth By Sleep - A Fragmentary Passage" portion in it will focus on one of the original "Birth By Sleep" characters, Aqua. Aqua's journey, which is due to take her through the "Realm of Darkness," is going to be particularly vital to how players understand the gameplay in "Kingdom Hearts 3" and this is why "Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue" is releasing first. He also outlined how Aqua will have to explore a world that is modeled after that of Cinderella's where she will face a lot of torment, such that players will have to help her escape from it. More importantly, this particular portion of "Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue" is being described as a test for some of the action that players will see in "Kingdom Hearts 3" and it is being viewed a primer that will eventually help them when the game finally appears.

As for "Kingdom Hearts 3," it is expected to release sometime after "Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue" arrives in the market and it will bring the "Dark Seeker" saga to an end. But after that, other games in the franchise will explore alternate areas and more spin-offs might be created.