Kingdom Hearts 4 co-director Tai Yasue and series creator Tetsuya Nomura were adamant that Square Enix would meet the game’s projected late 2027 release window.
There has been a lot of excitement surrounding Kingdom Hearts 4 this weekend. A new trailer rolled out during Friday’s D23 Expo Disney Entertainment Showcase with a late 2027 release window attached. On Saturday, as part of a special D23 Expo panel, both co-director Tai Yasue and series creator Tetsuya Nomura spoke at length about KH4’s development. More importantly, both were adamant that there would be no delay to the game’s release window.
Kingdom Hearts 4 co-director Tai Yasue says Kingdom Hearts 4 will 100% release in 2027. No delays. #KingdomHearts4 #D23 pic.twitter.com/rp92QZL6fy
— Shacknews (@shacknews) August 16, 2026
“I would like to thank everyone for their patience,” Yasue told the D23 Expo audience. “At this year’s D23, we’re finally able to announce a release date for Kingdom Hearts 4. I’m really excited about that, as well, and I can confidently say and promise that it will launch in 2027. Schedule-wise, development is very smooth. It’s not like an 80 percent thing [or] 90 percent, it’s a 100 percent thing, so we’ll be there for sure.”
Later in the panel, Nomura echoed Yasue’s sentiment.
“One last thing that I actually wanted to also to share, and this was something that I talked about with Tai [Yasue] as well, but we announced that the game is going to be coming late 2027,” Nomura told the audience via translator. “I saw online that some people were saying, ‘Oh, you know, maybe the actual release date might still get pushed back.’ I just wanted to set the record straight, that is not happening.”
In addition to discussing the making of Kingdom Hearts 4 and the series, as a whole, Yasue and Nomura showed off an extended version of Friday night’s trailer. This 4-minute cut showed some previously unrevealed gameplay additions, such as some playable sections involving King Mickey that extend beyond the game’s traditional action-RPG combat, and some gameplay stretches that will have players controlling Donald and Goofy without Sora to lead them.
This has been a big weekend for Kingdom Hearts. In addition to KH4 getting its late 2027 release window, a new animated series set in the Kingdom Hearts universe was announced for Disney+ and The Disney Channel. The animated series is in development with no release window at this time. This weekend has also set the stage for 2027 to be one of Square Enix’s biggest years in a long time, as the early part of the year will also see the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy conclude with Final Fantasy 7 Revelation. When it launches, Kingdom Hearts 4 will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2.
Shacknews staff does not use generative artificial intelligence (AI) in their content. Shacknews strictly prohibits the use of its content for AI training or to generate text, including text in the style or format used for this publication. Shacknews reserves all rights to this work.
Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can’t enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?
