Kingdom Hearts 3 switches to Unreal Engine 4
For "various reasons".
Kingdom Hearts 3 is now being made with Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4, its chief developer has revealed.
In an interview with Japanese magazine Famitsu, translated by Kotaku, creator Tetsuya Nomura said development would "progress smoothly" after some initial hiccups following the switch.
"Development is steadily proceeding as planned," he said. "Due to the impact of changing the game engine to Unreal Engine 4, which we did for various reasons, there is some difficulty rendering images. And with the full support of Epic Games, we'll be able to progress smoothly."
Nomura, then, declined to explain why the switch was made. It had been assumed Square Enix was using its in-house Luminous engine, which it trumpeted as early as 2011, to build the Disney-themed action role-playing game.
Square Enix's Japan-based developers have experience with Unreal. It used it to create RPG The Last Remnant, for example.
Kingdom Hearts 3 is due out on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Nomura was recently set to work on the game full-time after previously working on Final Fantasy 15 as director.
