It seems HD development might still be a little too hard for Square Enix after all, as over the weekend, Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series producer Shinji Hashimoto suggested fans might have to wait a while for their recently announced next generation offerings.

Speaking with IGN, Hashimoto admitted that Tetsuya Nomura’s involvement with both Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III might have some impact on their production.

“So at E3 this year we announced Kingdom Hearts III and Final Fantasy XV,” he said. “Both have Tetsuya Nomura as their director, so we can’t create these two big games at the same time. It’s a difficult job, as we want each game to be perfect in terms of quality.”

It was quite clear at E3 that Kingdom Hearts III was still in the early stages of development. Nomura himself stressed that the footage we saw at Sony’s press event was most definitely a target render, and that the team is still learning the inner workings of the tools for now. That said, Hashimoto’s words leave us hanging on a release time frame – it’s not happening any time soon.

“A lot of people have wondered for the last couple of years if Square Enix has actually been working on Kingdom Hearts III; that’s why we announced it at E3 this year,” said Hashimoto. “But please, we need you all to understand that there’s a lot to do.”