There’s an intriguing new rumor about Kingdom Hearts. We had recently reported that Disney was thinking of making it a movie or a show, but now this is about a new game.
We have the same source on this, that being Daniel Richtman, AKA DanielRPK. Daniel shared the news on his Patreon, but we have these details courtesy of Insider Gaming’s report.
On the video game side, Daniel claims that Square Enix is moving forward with work on Kingdom Hearts IV. In fact, they have actually been working on the game since 2020, and Daniel says they will be ready to release the game in 2025.
Without going into the details (and really, who understands it all at once), the ending of Kingdom Hearts III takes series protagonist Sora entering a new world called Quadratum. The characters of Kingdom Hearts refer to Quadratum as a fictional world, but the interesting thing is, it’s been patterned after modern day Shibuya.
So Kingdom Hearts IV is almost certain to be set in Quadratum, and rumors and speculation have already revolved around that. One rumor is that Quadratum will function as a hub world, but does that mean Sora will be meeting more realistic characters from Disney’s IPs? Don’t hold your breath on Sora squaring off with the Shaggy Dog, or teaming up with the Jamaican bobsled team, in any case.
But it’s an interesting rumor to pair up with the first one Daniel shared about that Disney project. If the game shows Sora in a place that looks like Shibuya, maybe that Kingdom Hearts movie or show is related to Kingdom Hearts IV. It could be an adaptation of Kingdom Hearts IV’s story, to help introduce the public to this popular but strange video game franchise.
Or, it could be made for the franchise’s fans too. It could be a prequel, perhaps an even slower introduction to Kingdom Hearts’ world. We could be introduced to Sora as a seeming normal boy, and then slowly be drawn into his world, until we actually learn who he is and where he comes from.
It also raises questions about Kingdom Hearts’ future as well. While Sony has previously been the sole platform for the franchise, Square Enix recently republished their classic Kingdom Hearts games across multiple platforms. That includes a recent new Square Enix partner, Xbox.
Square Enix did a turnaround on their longtime exclusives contract with Sony because their recent run on games on the PlayStation 5 had performed below expectations, with many games doing abysmally. It isn’t clear what upcoming or unannounced games are still under contract and can’t be brought to Xbox, but there’s a possibility that Kingdom Hearts IV could make it to Microsoft’s platform too.
That’s a lot to tie around one small rumor about Kingdom Hearts IV’s release, but these are all very much in the realm of possibility now.
