Kingdom Hearts 4 Delay, You Say? No Way, Series Co-Creator States

Over the weekend, Disney’s D23 expo not only revealed that Kingdom Hearts 4 will feature Pixar’s Coco, but also that the action-RPG is set to arrive in late 2027. Now, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen a new mainline installment in the Square Enix series–already over seven years at this point. So people are expressing skepticism about the release window, but franchise co-creator Tetsuya Nomura is promising Kingdom Hearts 4 will come out next year.

VGC reports that Nomura, who’s co-directing Kingdom Hearts 4, appeared on stage Saturday at D23 to discuss the new title. “We announced that the game is going to be coming late 2027, and I saw online that some people were saying, ‘Oh, you know, maybe the actual release date might still get pushed back,'” Nomura said through a translator. “I just wanted to set the record straight: That is not happening.”

Along with the release window, the world of Coco looks to have a major presence in Kingdom Hearts 4. In fact, Sora is even seen fighting alongside Hector in the new trailer for the RPG (seen above). It was also confirmed that Donald and Goofy will be playable characters for the first time ever in the franchise.

Kingdom Hearts 4 was originally announced over four years ago for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, during the franchise’s 20th anniversary in 2022. In June, the game was announced for Switch 2. Kingdom Hearts is one of Disney’s nine gaming franchises to generate over $1 billion. Hilariously enough, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner has no memory of giving the first game his approval almost a quarter of a century ago.