TGS '07: Three new Kingdom Hearts games coming

TOKYO--With the Tokyo Game Show kicking off, Square Enix has revealed it is working on three more installments of the popular role-playing game series Kingdom Hearts, bringing the franchise to the DS, PlayStation Portable, and mobile phones. Although the three titles are so far only confirmed for release in Japan, the company assures its Western fans of the series that "release in other territories will be determined at a later date."

The first game, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days brings the Disney and Square Enix worlds to the Nintendo DS and will feature characters Roxas and Axel in both single-player and multiplayer missions. The role-playing game will be directed by Tetsuya Nomura and Tomohiro Hasegawa. A date has not yet been set for the game's release in any region.

The second game is called Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and will be coming to the PlayStation Portable. Birth by Sleep will tell the story of three new characters, all of whom are keyblade apprentices in search of a missing keyblade master. Tetsuya Nomura and Tai Yasue are codirecting the title.

The third title is a mobile game called Kingdom Hearts Coded and is set after the events of the first Kingdom Hearts game. Jiminy Cricket returns to Disney Castle to write in his journal, where he finds a mysterious message that he cannot trace. This marks the beginning of a new quest for a virtual Sora. The mobile phone models and carriers that will support the game have not yet been announced.

The first Kingdom Hearts game was released in 2002 in a collaboration between Square Enix and Disney Interactive Studios. Installments of the series have since shifted 11 million copies on the PlayStation 2 and Game Boy Advance.