Kingdom Hearts co-creator and series designer Tetsuya Nomura has told players that Kingdom Hearts 4 will not be delayed beyond its late 2027 release window. Nomura made a surprise appearance at a Kingdom Hearts panel held on the Saturday night of Disney's D23 conference in Anaheim, California, a day after Square Enix announced the window, Video Games Chronicle reported.
Nomura, who has directed every game in the series, addressed players who had publicly doubted the date. Speaking through an on-stage interpreter, he said he had seen the scepticism online and wanted to answer it directly.
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’.
I just wanted to set the record straight – that is not happening. So I do hope that people do look forward to the game coming in 2027.
He went on to point players towards the campaign still to come.
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.
The panel itself had not been announced as a Nomura appearance. It was scheduled as a Kingdom Hearts session on the Saturday of the conference, and he took to the stage during it to discuss the game.
The panel followed a set of Kingdom Hearts announcements made on the Friday of the conference. Alongside the late 2027 window, Square Enix and Disney revealed that a Kingdom Hearts animated series is in the works, with plans to release it on Disney+ and Disney Channel, and confirmed the first of Kingdom Hearts 4's Disney-themed worlds: Coco.
