Why Kingdom Hearts 4 wasn’t at Summer Game Fest 2026

Four years after its reveal, Kingdom Hearts 4 remains one of gaming’s biggest mysteries. The long-awaited sequel was nowhere to be found during Summer Game Fest last week, extending a years-long drought of meaningful updates. But now that Square Enix has finally put a title and release window on Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, Sora’s absence might make a lot more sense.

The simplest explanation isn’t that KH4 is in trouble. Instead, Square Enix may be focusing its attention on FF7 Revelation before turning the spotlight back to KH4. Both games fall under Square Enix’s Creative Business Unit 1, the division responsible for many of the company’s largest RPGs.

KH 4 was formally announced in April 2022 with a reveal trailer that introduced players to Quadratum, a strange new world that looked far more realistic than previous entries in the series. Development had reportedly begun months earlier, and the announcement arrived alongside news of Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link, a mobile spinoff that appeared poised to help bridge the gap between Kingdom Hearts 3 and the next mainline installment.

Then things got quiet.

Missing-Link was eventually canceled in May 2025, as part of a company-wide strategic “shift from quantity to quality.” That announcement came with a few new screenshots from KH4. So it’s been more than a year since Square Enix has offered any official updates on the game. A few months later, series director Tetsuya Nomura offered another brief update during a livestream dedicated to Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis. “We are making great strides and going according to schedule,” he said. Since then, however, there has been nothing else to report.

That’s likely why fans have been hopeful for more news leading up to every major gaming event. Earlier this year, when Tokyo Game Show’s official social media accounts teased an announcement coming on May 12, fans thought a cryptic loading screen looked like the Kingdom Hearts font. Plenty of fans got their hopes up, but the reveal turned out to be related to TGS’s 30th anniversary show. The same happened with Summer Game Fest last week.

Kingdom Hearts fans have spent years scanning every major gaming showcase for signs of the series’ return. Even though KH4 was absent, Square Enix still made headlines with FF7 Revelation. The timing of its spring 2027 launch window matters.

Image: Square Enix

Square Enix’s Creative Business Unit 1, arguably the most important and biggest studio in the bunch, handles the mainline Final Fantasy franchise. It also makes the Final Fantasy 7 remakes and the Kingdom Hearts series. Currently, a lot of CBU1’s resources are likely being spent finalizing development on FF7 Revelation.

Chief among those developmental resources is probably Tetsuya Nomura himself. He directed the first FF7 Remake and has served as creative director on both FF7 Rebirth and FF7 Revelation. So he splits his time between the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series.

More importantly, however, Square Enix now has a flagship RPG to market for the better part of the next year.

While nearly six years passed between the announcement and release of Kingdom Hearts 3, modern blockbuster marketing campaigns tend to be much shorter than they once were. They’ve been trending that way for years. Final Fantasy 16 was announced in 2020, a full four years before its eventual release. Square Enix announced the title for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth in June 2022, less than two years before its February 2024 release. That window is even tighter for FF7 Revelation.

Rather than juggling two massive RPG campaigns simultaneously, it would make sense for Square Enix to give Revelation the spotlight until it arrives next spring. Then, in all likelihood, all of its attention will shift to KH4.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that the game is still years away. Summer Game Fest may have been the right stage at the wrong time. Once FF7 Revelation launches, Square Enix might finally be ready to answer the question fans have been asking since 2022: Where is Kingdom Hearts 4?

Summer Game Fest 2026 didn’t provide that answer — but maybe next year’s event will. Thanks to Revelation‘s newly announced release window, the reason for Square Enix’s silence feels easier to understand than it is to accept.