The third main-line installation of the Kingdom Hearts series is in the works, according to series creator Tetsuya Nomura. Confirmation comes after Nomura hinted about the title last September.

Nomura, who has served as director and designer on Kingdom Hearts titles to date, has told Japanese magazine Famitsu that his team is under pressure to work on Kingdom Hearts III from fans, and is working to bring it about.

This confirms that the game is on the way, but is only in the early design stages.

More on Kingdom Hearts III it comes.

EA and BioWare have announced that the next title in its new Dragon Age franchise will be out in early 2011.

Dragon Age: Origins just launched the series last November, and more downloadable content and a standalone expansion are in the works. The news that a second full title is coming in about a year shows dedication (and perhaps aggression) in advancing the Dragon Age line.

Meanwhile, BioWare is currently basking in the success of Mass Effect 2. The third installment to that series is unlikely to be out until sometime in 2012.

Square Enix’s upcoming Final Fantasy XIII is, of course, going to be one big, long game. I expect that, you expect that. Now, Square Enix is giving us a number.

FF13 will lock in at least 60 hours of your time in the first playthrough. Motomu Toriyama, who’s heading up the project, tells Kotaku:

… the size of the entire game is considerable. Just running through the main story takes experienced players over 50 hours. For the first time, I think it’s possible to play through in full in about 60 hours or so.

That’s for the storyline alone. For completionists, who look for details and run through as many sidequests as possible, we’re probably looking at nearly 100 hours of gameplay.

Not too bad.

Final Fantasy XIII will be released on December 17 in Japan, and March 9 in North America, Europe and Australia.

Square Enix’s president and CEO, Yoichi Wada again confirmed that his company plans to release Final Fantasy XIII to North America and Europe next spring.

Wada gave a brief comment on the game’s localization progress, saying that it is coming along well, and that the company should be able to release FF13 to international markets by the end of its fiscal year, in April 2010. This is more-or-less on par with the schedule laid forth back in January, when Wada said that April would be the earliest we would see Final Fantasy XIII outside of Japan.

The Japanese version of Final Fantasy XIII is now being completed for a December launch in its native country. The Japanese FF13 will be exclusive to the Sony PS3, while North America and Europe will have a choice between PS3 and Xbox 360 versions.

Square Enix has revealed the method of character growth in Final Fantasy XIII. Instead of a traditional level-up system, FFXIII will introduce the Crystalium System.

Those familiar with the Sphere Grid from Final Fantasy X won’t have too much trouble adapting to this new system. In Final Fantasy XIII, characters will earn Crystalium Points, or CP, from battles — instead of the traditional Experience Points. The CP can then be used to unlock nodes on a grid, which grant character traits and abilities. Unlocking a node allows you to progress your abilities further down that area of the grid, enabling abilities beyond that node to be unlocked.

The Crystalium System places character growth on an expanding grid, allowing earned CP
to unlock nodes and create a path to desired traits, magic and abilities.

Magic upgrades will work in the same way, allowing the familiar progression through the tiers of Final Fantasy spells, such as from Fire, to Fira, to Firaga.

Presumably, players will have to choose which abilities they want their characters to unlock to make them most useful in battle.

Final Fantasy XIII will be out in Japan on December 17, with the English translation due to hit North America and Europe in Spring or early Summer of 2010.

Speaking with Famitsu magazine, Square Enix’s Tetsuya Nomura, the creator of Kingdom Hearts, dropped a hint about the contents of Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, and the possibility of a third main Kingdom Hearts title.

When asked about the replay value of Birth By Sleep, Nomura answered:

“I think there are a lot of puzzling elements, so maybe they’ll want to play the next game… And there’ll be a secret movie too.”

When asked to clarify whether or not “the next game” meant Kingdom Hearts III, Nomaru simply replied, with laughter:

“The next game will be the next game.”

Of course, it may be some time before we get full details about this “next game”, but in the meantime Birth By Sleep will be out this December in Japan, and presumably sometime next year in other territories.