The director behind Kingdom Hearts III and Final Fantasy 7 Remake has recently admitted that Square Enix announced both games too early, but said it was a necessary move to assuage the excitement of fans and prevent leaks and rumors.

Speaking to Italian magazine Multiplayer, Tetsuya Nomura said their team has always found it difficult to pin down the right timing for announcing Kingdom Hearts III due to a number of factors. This includes constant pressure from fans asking what project they are working on, wariness on game information leaks that spoil big surprises, and risking having gamers believe in fake rumors. If and when these happen, Nomura dreads having to deny or respond to these information.

“The same thing happened with the remake of Final Fantasy 7,” said Nomura as translated by Kingdom Hearts Insider. “I am well aware of the fact that we announced it too early, but even in the industry, word was beginning to spread that we were working on the game, so we just decided not to keep it more secret and officially reveal it.”

Luckily, development on both games seem to be progressing well, with Kingdom Hearts III finally having a firm January 29, 2019 release date while Final Fantasy 7 Remake already went out of the early concept stages.

The next problem that arises after game announcements is trying to quench their fans’ thirst for more new information, said Nomura. Luckily, gamers eagerly anticipating Kingdom Hearts III are in for a treat as Nomura is teasing several surprises in the coming months. “I’m sure a lot of people will be more suprised by the trailers we’re going to show in the following months than by the ones we’ve shown so far,” said Nomura.

Despite revealing more new content in the coming months, Nomura assured Kingdom Hearts III fans that they can unearth more secrets and surprises on their own. “I can tell you that a lot of the characters that have appeared in the past titles will return, and there are even a few we haven’t shown yet. We’ve also kept secret a few really important characters that will leave the fans speechless.”

Hopefully these surprises aren’t spoiled before Kingdom Hearts III hits shelves next year on PS4 and Xbox One.