Square Enix Japan seems to be acquiring worldly talent to the Kingdom Hearts III development team, including Praveen Dubey (and possibly Lakshya Digital as a whole for a contract) and Star Wars 1313 AI engineer, Eric Johnson.
Previously, it was found that Praveen Dubey, a 3D artist, is claiming to be working on Kingdom Hearts III. He is currently working at Lakshya Digital, so it is unclear whether or not Square Enix has hired the company for contract work or the man in question.
Now, Eric Johnson has been found to be working on the project as an AI engineer for 7 months. He previously worked on the cancelled Star Wars 1313, Infinite Crisis, and EVE Online.
It seems as though Square Enix is heading into a new worldly direction. For example: A tech demo called Agni’s Philosophy was created to show off the Luminous Engine, and art by Tomb Raider developers, Crystal Dynamics, was used for the project. Square Enix have also switched from the Luminous Engine to the Western originated Unreal Engine 4 during the development of Kingdom Hearts III.
The co-director of the Kingdom Hearts series, Tai Yasue, hails from Vancouver, Canada.
Eidos Interactive was bought by Square Enix in 2009, and has since released Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Hitman: Absolution, and Tomb Raider under their name with sequels in development for both Deus Ex and Tomb Raider.
Kingdom Hearts III is currently in development for PS4 and Xbox One.
Source: Eric Johnson’s LinkedIn (via KH-Vids)