Kingdom Hearts 4 co-director Tai Yasue and series creator Tetsuya Nomura have assured fans that it is a "100% thing" the game will not be delayed past its late 2027 launch window.
While the team behind the new Kingdom Hearts game stopped short of sharing a final release date during its big D23 2026 presence, they feel pretty confident the current schedule will stick. Yasue, Nomura, and director of product development at Disney and Pixar games Nana Gadd doubled down on Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts 4 launch plans during a panel at this year's show.
"One last thing I wanted to share: We announced the game is going to be coming in late 2027," Nomura said. "I saw online that some people were saying the release date might still get pushed back. I want to set the record straight: That is not happening. I do hope that people do look forward to the game coming in 2027. A lot of the marketing for the game has only just started, and so I do hope that people also look forward to hearing more news as well."
"There's many things underway, many plans we have underway," he continued. "Now that we are approaching the 25th anniversary, we're thinking about what the 30th anniversary [looks like]."
"I can confidently say and promise that it will launch in 2027," Yasue said. "Schedule-wise, the development is very smooth. It's not like an 80%, 90% – it's a 100% thing. We'll be there in 2027 for sure."
The more skeptical fans believe they have some justification for their delay fears. Mainline entries in the series have suffered infamously long breaks between entries, with the break between Kingdom Hearts 2 and 3 being 13 years. We're now going on eight years since the last game's launch in 2019, but it sounds like the developers at Square Enix are confident the wait won't be too much longer.
Another reason fans are worried about a delay relates to the recent conversation surrounding physical game discs. Sony announced in July that it will no longer support physical releases for new PlayStation games that launch after January 2028. Should Kingdom Hearts 4 be delayed past that date, it would make it the first mainline entry in the series without a physical release, at least on PlayStation 5.
Kingdom Hearts 4 was formally announced in 2022 and will launch for PC, Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series X | S in late 2027. While we wait to see what other Disney worlds and, hopefully, Final Fantasy characters the team have planned for the fourth games, you can read about the the extended gameplay trailer shown during the panel. You can also catch up on everything announced during the D23 panel right here.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
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