'Kingdom Hearts 3' release date news 2016: Sequel's new contents, gameplay leaked online; Prologue game title to be released January 2017

The "Kingdom Hearts" game franchise is one of the prized gems of the Japanese game studio Square Enix. For the past several months, it has been rumored that the game series will expand even more with the release of "Kingdom Hearts 3." There are no confirmed reports yet of the game's release date, and even Square Enix has been extra careful in revealing the details for "Kingdom Hearts 3." Still, even without a foreseeable release date in the future, the game's new contents and gameplay leaks have started to surface online.

As reported by Yibada, a Reddit user known as Zonemasta8 recently caused a stir online when he posted a GIF image, showing the gameplay features and the supposed graphic improvements in "Kingdom Hearts 3." Particularly, there is a sequence in the GIF picture showing the combat gameplay of Sora, Donald and Goofy. The improvement in the graphics resolution is clearly evident on the leaked image on the Reddit forums, and this is miles ahead of the graphics feature in "Kingdom Hearts 2," which was released about 11 years ago.

However, the online publication has also been wary of declaring the photo as authentic. There is still a possibility that the gameplay sequence shown in the GIF picture did not come from Square Enix, and it may only be fan-made.

So far, Square Enix has not yet revealed any information regarding the improvements and additional gameplay contents that the fans can expect in "Kingdom Hearts 3," so these early game leaks should be taken with a grain of salt.

Meanwhile, Square Enix has finally presented the upcoming "Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Prologue" video game at the Tokyo Game Show 2016. A new game trailer was shown in front of the event's participants, where the game mechanics and plot details of the game are revealed. It was also confirmed that the supposed prelude game chapter to "Kingdom Hearts 3" will be released on Jan. 24, 2017, for PlayStation 4 console. 

According to The Bitbag, releasing "Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Prologue" before "Kingdom Hearts 3" is important in order to set the stage for the latter. The prologue will properly introduce the changes in the new "Kingdom Hearts" installment. With the release date of the prologue confirmed, the fans may not need to wait for another couple of years to have "Kingdom Hearts 3." At the very least, it is likely that Square Enix will be done finishing the game by 2018.