The director of the Kingdom Hearts series, Tetsuya Nomura, has revealed that two new development teams have been brought on board for future Kingdom Hearts titles.
This brings the total number of development teams up to four. The two teams that existed prior were the Osaka Team (Kingdom Hearts 3, Birth By Sleep, and 3D), and the team handling KHUX, (the mobile game). A personal Square Enix development team from Toyko worked on Kingdom Hearts 1 and Kingdom Hearts 2, but unless they're the team behind KHUX, Nomura doesn't mention them in the interview.
Nomura disclosed the new information in a QA titled "7 Lights and 13 Darknesses." The QA was broken into two parts with Tai Yasue, Kingdom Hearts 3's co-director, handling the "7 Lights" portion, and Nomura handling the "13 Darknesses." The interview as a whole divulged a lot of information, but arguably the most exciting bits dealt with the future of the Kingdom Hearts series. According to two Nomura, not only does Kingdom Hearts have two new development teams, but these teams are already working on the next Kingdom Hearts title, which, according to Nomura, "will be coming surprisingly soon."
Eight years passed after Kingdom Hearts 2 before Kingdom Hearts 3 finally found itself announced. It then took the game another six years of development before it finally released early last year. The idea that a new Kingdom Hearts title will be arriving "surprisingly soon," comes off as a bit of a surprise then. To be fair, though, the development of Kingdom Hearts 3 had to deal with jumping to a next-generation console and changing development engines while it was in the works. Also, Nomura has stated in the past that another "bridge title" will need to happen before Kingdom Hearts 4 releases, so it's probably not the game currently in development.
The addition of two new teams seems to explain the job listing posted by Square Enix in the past. The company was looking for new members for the development of future Kingdom Hearts titles, and from the sound of things, they've completed their search. Who these new developments teams are and what they've worked on before hasn't been disclosed yet. Its probable further information will come out for them in the future, but for now, they remain a mystery. The exact release of the new Kingdom Hearts title also remains a mystery, but Nomura has promised to give future updates about it.
Kingdom Hearts 3 is out now for PS4 and Xbox One.