The next major installment in Square Enix’s beloved action RPG franchise, Kingdom Hearts 4, may be arriving sooner than expected if new insider rumors are to be believed. Multiple prominent leakers are claiming the long-awaited sequel could launch as early as 2025 after around 4 years in development.
The rumor mill first started churning thanks to a post from noted insider DanielRPK on his Patreon account. The prolific film and gaming leaker stated he had heard Kingdom Hearts IV was slated for a 2025 release, suggesting fans may not have to endure the same excruciating wait as previous entries in the series.
Lending some added credibility, DanielRPK recently leaked accurate details about a new Sonic game being developed in the style of last year’s open-zone adventure Sonic Frontiers. That claim was swiftly corroborated by another renowned Sega insider going by the name Midori.
Of course, any unofficial release window should be taken with a grain of salt until officially confirmed by Square Enix. The publisher has been remarkably tight-lipped about Kingdom Hearts 4 since its initial announcement trailer back in 2022. All that’s been definitively revealed is the game will kick off the new “Lost Master Arc” storyline, take place in a realistic Tokyo-inspired city called Quadratum, and run on Unreal Engine 5.
However, a 2025 launch isn’t entirely out of the question based on Square’s typical development timelines for the franchise. The previous mainline entry, Kingdom Hearts 3, launched in 2019 after over half a decade in the making following its 2013 reveal.
Assuming Kingdom Hearts 4 entered active development by 2019 as well, it will have been over 4 years in the works by 2025. That would position it much closer to the average development cycle for the series compared to the six-year wait for Kingdom Hearts 3.
Fans have certainly been conditioned for long hiatuses between major Kingdom Hearts releases in the past. But if these insider rumors prove accurate, they may get to revisit the enduringly popular Disney/ Final Fantasy crossover universe sooner than many expected. Anticipation will only rise if Square Enix finally shares more concrete Kingdom Hearts 4 details over the next year.
