Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner can't remember why he approved Kingdom Hearts

Michael Eisner, the man who greenlit Kingdom Hearts back in 2002, has admitted he has almost no memory of doing so. The 84-year-old former Disney CEO was in New York at a panel promoting Delphi Interactive — a video game company he's invested in — when Game File reporter Stephen Totilo caught him afterward and asked about the iconic Square Enix series.

Eisner's initial answer was a flat "no." Even after Totilo reminded him that the pitch happened in Tokyo and involved a crossover between Disney characters and Final Fantasy, Eisner still couldn't recall why he gave it the thumbs-up. The fuller picture of that Tokyo meeting comes from Shuji Utsumi, who was then managing director of Disney Interactive's Asia Pacific division and is now Sega's COO. Utsumi revealed that Kingdom Hearts was actually an experimental project that hadn't yet been officially authorised by Disney headquarters — and that Square Enix was apparently unaware of this, already deep in development. Veteran Disney staff in Japan advised Utsumi to drop the whole thing, convinced it would never get approved. He pushed ahead anyway, and after extensive groundwork and meetings with his US superiors, the pitch went through. Eisner's response wasn't exactly a standing ovation — Utsumi described his demeanor as that of an "ancient Chinese Emperor" — but he offered words of encouragement along the lines of "keep up the good work" and "do it right."

Kingdom Hearts launched on PlayStation 2 in 2002 and grew into one of gaming's most beloved and bewildering franchises, spinning out across dozens of platforms and entries over more than two decades. The series is famous for its origins in a chance elevator encounter between Square's Shinji Hashimoto and a Disney executive. Eisner ran Disney from 1984 to 2005, overseeing a vast entertainment empire, so it's not entirely shocking that one video game pitch didn't leave a permanent mark on his memory.

The franchise is still very much alive. Kingdom Hearts 4 is in development, with D23 next month seen as a likely venue for news. A Kingdom Hearts I-III Collection is also due out in October, though its announcement drew some criticism over the accompanying artwork. Kingdom Hearts: Missing-Link, a mobile entry, was cancelled last year after the development team decided it wouldn't meet fan expectations — though leaked footage surfaced earlier this month showing what appeared to be keyblade-wielding astronauts battling a giant Heartless.