Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Dated

Better get to work on that copy of Kingdom Heart 358/2 Days. The next entry in the Kingdom Hearts franchise -- and the real followup to Kingdom Hearts 2 -- now has a final date!

Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep will arrive on January 9, 2010, Square Enix announced today. The new PSP entry in the series will carry a retail price of ¥6,090, a bit higher than the usual PSP asking price of ¥5,040.

Birth By Sleep puts players in control of three characters, each with separate story lines. Players who manage to work through all three adventures will at last be able to clear up some of the mysteries that surround the main Kingdom Hearts series.

Outside of solo play, the game includes multiplayer play for up to three. Players will be able to team up for cooperative combat.

Square Enix showed Birth By Sleep in playable form at the Tokyo Game Show, where it first announced a general January release time frame.