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This year’s D23 Disney Fan Event brought good news for Kingdom Hearts IV fans. Following the trailer shown during June’s Nintendo Direct, Square Enix and Disney recently released another one, confirming that the game will be released in 2027. The game will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2. Fans were worried that the release would be pushed back to 2028, but series director Tetsuya Nomura and co-director Tai Yasue set the record straight.
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“At this year’s D23 Expo, we can finally announce the release date for Kingdom Hearts IV, and I can say with confidence and promise that the game will be released in 2027,” Yasue-san stated during the “Deep Dive into Kingdom Hearts” panel discussion at the D23 conference. “Development is proceeding very smoothly and on schedule – it’s not 80%, not 90%… it’s 100%, so we’ll definitely make it in time.”
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“We announced that, as you know, the game will be released in late 2027, and I saw online that some people were writing: ‘Oh, you know, maybe the actual release date will be pushed back after all,’” added Nomura-san. “I just wanted to set the record straight – that won’t happen.”
Given the confidence expressed by the director and co-director of Kingdom Hearts IV, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic that the game will indeed be released next year. Since Final Fantasy VII Revelation is set to be the major release of the first half of 2027 – with its release scheduled for spring – we can assume that the new Kingdom Hearts title will debut shortly after it.
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As for what exactly Kingdom Hearts IV will feature, aside from what has already been shown – specifically, the ability to play as Mickey, Donald, and Goofy – Tetsuya Nomura revealed very little during the panel. However, he confirmed that the fourth game will feature a unique world concept that the team was unable to implement in the third installment of the series. This likely refers to a Disney concept or theme not featured in the movies and therefore subject to fewer creative constraints.
“Coming up with something new based solely on a specific type of concept is very interesting and enjoyable. And in a sense, it’s even less intimidating, since there’s no expectation that you have to recreate something exactly as it is… We had a concept that emerged while we were still working on Kingdom Hearts III, and we worked on bringing it to life, but it was quite difficult to implement,” Nomura-san admitted. “So this idea has evolved and will appear in Kingdom Hearts IV, so stay tuned to see what kind of world it will take place in. It’s a pretty amazing world, at least from our perspective, so stay tuned for that.”
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Regardless of which Disney worlds make it into the game and how the series’ incredibly convoluted plot unfolds, it’s hard not to be excited that Kingdom Hearts IV will finally let you play as Donald and Goofy. Any other surprises will just be the icing on the cake.