Konami halts production on console games, an unofficial confirmation for “The Last of Us 2,” Square Enix announces another Kingdom Hearts bundle and Nintendo gets a new president in this week’s top news.  

New Kingdom Hearts game announced

Square Enix announced another Kingdom Hearts compilation package, “Kingdom Hearts II.8: Final Chapter Prologue.”

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The game contains a high-definition remaster of the Nintendo 3DS title “Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance” and includes a new story called “Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage.” The package also has “Kingdom Hearts X Black Cover,” a movie with cutscenes from the browser-based game “Kingdom Hearts Unchained X.”

This product is the third compilation to release for the PlayStation 3 after “Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix” and “Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix.”

It is easy to see with this bundle that Square Enix is milking this franchise. However, getting more Kingdom Hearts is never a bad thing and playing previously handheld-only games in the series on a console will be great.

It is odd these re-releases are only coming to the PlayStation 3. Where is a PlayStation 4 version? Better yet, why have they not come to Xbox consoles? The next proper installment, “Kingdom Hearts 3,” will be on both platforms, why not these remasters too?

Furthermore, Square Enix still enjoys creating the strangest and longest names for Kingdom Hearts games.

Konami may be done making console games

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Apart from the Pro Evolution Soccer series, Konami has seemingly stopped production on major console titles for the unforeseeable future.

On Sept. 17, Julien Merceron, the overseer of Konami’s game engine, left the company — presumably because of Konami’s shifted focus on mobile games.

This is not surprising at all. Other than Metal Gear and Pro Evolution Soccer, Konami doesn’t make many console games and Metal Gear is notoriously expensive to create.

Konami has more products than just video games. The release of “Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain” makes it clear the company is looking to move away from that market.

This is tragic for Metal Gear fans because the series could be reduced and milked as a convenient cash cow for Konami, while all we might ever see are poorly-made mobile games.

Konami, please sell the Metal Gear brand for the sake of gamers.

‘The Last of Us 2’ unofficially confirmed

During a livestream of “Uncharted the Nathan Drake Collection” writer Josh Scherr may have accidentally confirmed the existence of a sequel to Naughty Dog’s fantastic 2013 game “The Last of Us.”

“All the facial animation in the Uncharted series was led up by Eric [Monacelli], here, and on the first ‘The Last of Us.’ Uh, did I say the first ‘The Last of Us,'” Scherr asked.

Though it is not an official confirmation, Scherr got increasingly flustered as the stream continued. He frequently repeated himself and stumbled over his words. It certainly seemed like he realized he spilled the beans.

It is all speculation at this point, but it certainly seems likely Scherr’s statement unofficially confirmed the existence of a sequel.

This wouldn’t be surprising as Naughty Dog is Sony’s best first-party developer and with the critical success of “The Last of Us,” a sequel would be the next logical step.

Nintendo hires new company president

Tatsumi Kimishima was appointed President and Representative Director of Nintendo on Sunday.

Kimishima held various positions at Nintendo and The Pokemon Company before his appointment.

He replaces former president Satoru Iwata, who died at 55 years old in July from a cancerous bile duct growth.

Iwata’s death haunts gamers to this day, but it is good to see Nintendo moving on and preparing for the future. Kimishima has tons of experience in the industry and will hopefully lead a bright future for Nintendo and its fans.

Grant Meyer can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @GrantMeyerDE.