Another one for the Rumour factory, but thanks to a LinkedIn account that belonged to a Square Enix designer in Osaka, it appeared that at one time Square Enix was working on a new Kingdom Hearts game under the title of Kingdom Hearts 2.9.
A Kingdom Hearts fanpage under KH13.com first reporting the sighting showed that the designer worked on Kingdom Hearts 2.9 for a total of 10 months, with the game in development for PS3 and PS4. This had lead to a couple of theories suggesting 2.9 could be a bundled edition of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5, or possibly just being a typo 2.5 despite never releasing on the PS4. Or possibly a cancelled project.
More interesting enough is the information mentioned about his work in Kingdom Hearts 3, which highlighted meetings with Disney and Pixar, along with new Gummi Ship system and Multiplayer planning and documentation.
The linkedIn info is as follows:
Game Designer
Square Enix
August 2014 – June 2015(11 months) | Osaka, Osaka, Japan—
“Kingdom Hearts 2.9” (PS3, PS4) Development (10 Months)
-Game idea planning and documentation
-Game Check and balance
-Boss planning
-Attraction Flow planning and documentation“Kingdom Hearts III” (PS4, Xbox One) Development (10 Months )
Original-level planning, documentation and execution for 2 Worlds
INCLUDING enemy, Item, secrets and event Management
-Mockup Creation of 3 Worlds INCLUDING temporary Asset Creation
-Game idea planning and documentation
-Game Check and balance
-Enemy planning and documentation
-Gummi Ship system planning and documentation
-Multiplayer planning and documentation
-Attraction Flow planning and documentation
-Main Scenario planning for 2 Worlds
-Various in-Game dialogue writing
-Translation and Interpretation of Contact Between Involved English and Japanese parties INCLUDING Disney and Pixar
-Publicity video Recording and editing
-Communication with Outsourced companies
-Holding Meetings with Disney and Pixar
-Team Management, Meeting Management and Proceeding Recordings
While this is a very convincing rumour, Square Enix has yet to confirm any information about the existence of 2.5, Pixar’s involvement or Multiplayer in 3.