At D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event 2026, Square Enix finally put a real target on Kingdom Hearts 4: late 2027. It’s currently slated for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2, which would also put it close to the series’ 25th anniversary.
Co-director Tai Yasue told the D23 crowd he can “confidently say and promise” a 2027 release with “100%” certainty. Tetsuya Nomura, according to fans at the event, was even blunter, saying a delay is “not happening.” For Kingdom Hearts, a series that’s spent years bouncing between long gaps and changing plans, that’s unusually direct.
On the story side, Square Enix’s latest showing looks like the opening stretch of the Lost Master Arc, picking up after Kingdom Hearts III, Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, and the close of the Dark Seeker Saga. Sora is still stranded in Quadratum, now shown as a bigger urban space you can actually move through, with more room for traversal, vertical movement, and open-area exploration.
The same presentation also locked in a world based on Disney and Pixar’s Coco, with Miguel and Héctor, plus a 2.5D Mickey Mouse puzzle-platforming section and separate Donald Duck and Goofy sequences. If you’ve been waiting for an actual release window, this is the kind of update you’ll want to take, even if a little caution still makes sense.
Square Enix also said Kingdom Hearts 4 is being planned alongside a new Disney+ and Disney Channel animated series involving Tetsuya Nomura, following the cancellation of Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link in May 2025.
