Art from Hinoue Itaru Works 2009-2016. No, it's not from the new game.
In an exclusive interview between Anime News Network & VisualArt's at Anime Central published today, president of VisualArt's Takahiro Baba announced that Key's next title is currently in development.
Anime News Network: "Lastly, a general question for
Ohhhhhhhhh can’t wait for the announcement, tho most likely the project will be released 3-4 years after the announcement if its a big VN.
I personally want it to be a VN (also I want an All-star 2D fighting game that has all of Key’s characters)
I wonder if they are going to do another Romeo Tanaka x Ryukishi07 x Yuto Tonokawa.
Just another masterpiece.
I remember Baba saying that there is a possibility for a Charlotte VN in Twitter.
tho I really want the next project to be an all-new story instead of taking a failed project and making it into a VN
EDIT: sorry I haven’t payed much attention to the article, Baba said that it will be an original work, well now I’m super excited 
tho there is something that I want to discuss, I remember Baba saying in AnimeCentral that he wants to make Key a company famous for making onion-cutting Anime, so I guess there is a possibility that this is another Aniplex x P.A Works anime
Hype~
Then again it probably won’t be out until 2019 earliest so I’ll contain myself.
As for who will be involved, that’s an interesting question. Maeda seems to be busy working on AB! and whatever he wants to continue doing with Charlotte. It could be a Charlotte VN with Maeda though the way he says “it’s a game you don’t know (about) yet” makes me think that’s doubtful. In regards to a TRT collab, there’s already one in the works - TRianThology - and I doubt they’re talking about that one since that’s considered a 07th Expansion VN. So… who knows?
That would be amazing and I’d be completely fine with that turning out to be the announcement =P
No faith.
Key isn’t that big of a team, its incredibly concerning to hear that they’re working on a new original title while there is one game they’ve commited to for release and another title that is apparently in development hell, on top of Rewrite+ getting additional content which is more active development.
This studio worries me nowadays.
Wonder if Maeda will be involved? He seems to like working on a trillion things at once (e.g. Angel Beats! -first beat-, Charlotte, and the last stretch of Hibiki’s Magic in 2015.) His plate isn’t full enough this year, I say!
While you do raise a very good argument, I figure there would be some inconsistency in regards to their occupied staff. Take Harmonia, for example, which seems to only need polishing up. I figure Hinoue herself wouldn’t be occupied in that kind of thing, neither would Kai. I also figure the writers and musicians wouldn’t be involved in translating either.
That being said, while the rest of their works are being polished up, the staff that would handle project planning (concept, design, etc) I assume would be free at the moment. So, hey, why not dedicate their time to a new game instead
I was an idiot and didn’t realise that Baba specifically calls it a game. There goes the anime theory 
Visual novels production usually don’t demand as much people as other games do. As example, Kanon only had less than 20 people credited to have worked for the game. Plus they can always pull in outside people to work for the company, like what they did with Rewrite.
In the case of Angel Beats! Itaru Hinoue isn’t really involved in it. And I guess neither is Yuuto Tonokawa. Not sure about Shinji Orito though, considering he’s composing new tracks for Planetarian and possibly Rewrite anime. Though I don’t think he has composed for AB! at all?
And speaking of Tonokawa, do you think it’s possible that he’d be the main scenario writer this time? This game looks like it would be interesting, at the very least. :))
I think it is about time Key comes up with a totally new VN and title. Well you can say Harmonia could be considered one but it’s a Kinetic Novel. The other recent works are really just re-work, re-mastered, or extension from an existing title. So much hype what kind of title would it be!
I know this will kinda piss of some people but I don’t want Yuto Tonokawa to be a writer in this new VN.
His writing always feels weak for me, his routes in Little Busters are decent but his stuff in Rewrite were pretty weak imo.
it will be very interesting if we get a Romeo Tanaka x Jun Maeda VN
Romeo Tanaka’s logical magic + Jun Maeda’s feels
That would be great!
~~
isn’t the pic in the article a little bit TOO misleading ;^^
Isn’t it kinda inevitable? I think he (and maybe Maeda I’m not sure what his position is) is the only in-house writer at Key now. I was fine with both Chihaya and Shizuru’s routes but thought they were the weakest in the VN.
Im pretty sure he composed some BGM’s for AB 1st Beat. Seeing as many new BGM’s are seen, and I remember reading Shinji’s name on a new AB 1st OST.
As for scenario writers, my guess is that Tonokawa is planning, or writing some routes at least, seeing as he’s Key’s main scenerio writer now, and has to prove himself. I can see Leo Kashida planning it too though.
For character designs, my bet is on Hinoue. With Na-Ga being busy with the upcoming AB (beats), and with Hinoue having much free time considering Harmonia was pretty much done a while ago.
As for story, I really do hope it has a nostalgic feeling. Angel Beats!, Rewrite, and Charlotte, they’re all great, but honestly, I would love to just read and feel a new nostalgic Key-Story, bringing us back to the days of Kanon, CLANNAD, and Air, when it was about a town we loved, characters we loved, and a very beautiful environment.
Also @system e.e Nice click bait >.<
That’s… kind of a paradox, isn’t it? Something is nostalgic because it reminds you of the past so… if it’s new, that’s impossible isn’t it?
New things can evoke nostalgic feelings when you’re reminded of older works. Similar music, scenarios… etc.
Rewrite’s common route was a pretty nostalgic read imo.
I personally want Key to make more stuff like Rewrite, Moon and Terra are absolute masterpieces
Not impossible. It just depends on the creative process for the story. If Leo is planning it, we can expect something beautiful at least.
Anyways, who was messaging Baba ? I just looked at the photo and it seems like they were spamming Baba e.e
Well, sure, they could do that, but I don’t quite see how Clannad reminds the readers of Air or Kanon. Like, it seems really vague to me what @Totoro_Futaki means by “new nostalgic Key-Story” if not for the fact that they are old.
So what exactly do you expect they would have to do to make it nostalgic?
Ok, lots of conflicting thoughts and feelings about this.
Am I excited? Of course. Ive never been around for Key to announce a new visual novel IP. The closest Ive gotten was Charlotte, which was only an anime, but still extremely hype, and Angel Beats!, which may not have been a new IP, but was a new VN.
Speaking of Angel Beats! though. Its pretty worrying to me that we’ve had absolutely zero word about 2nd beat, and its been a year since the release of 1st beat. And now there’s news of a new project being announced.
I’m sorry everyone, but I would much rather get 2nd beat news than a new IP. And only a part of that is because Im actually really excited for it because I love the potential of AB. The other part of it is after so many years, I just want Angel Beats! to be finished already. I dont want to have to split my excitement between everything new Key is doing, and this old project that, while I love it, has been dragged out beyond belief.
That said, I am still excited. After this summer, Key actually wont have much going on anymore. For the past year, we’ve been so flooded by new stuff, but come fall, all the planetarian stuff will be done, the first cour of Rewrite over, Rewrite+ released, and (knock on wood) hopefully Harmonia released. All we’ll have is some more Rewrite anime if its more than one cour. Anything coming after that will be a new announcement, be it Angel Beats!, a new English release, or whatever this new IP is.
And as others have said, an announcement this year means we almost certainly wont get anything until at least next year, and with Key it will probably get delayed to even longer from now.
Concerning the staff:
Here’s the thing though: My dream would be to have only one writer, no matter who it is. Thats never happened in Key history, I know. But think about how much more consistent the themes and the quality would be! At the very least, Im hoping for no more than two.
