Ever since the release of Kingdom Hearts 3, which concluded the Dark Seeker Saga back in 2019, fans have been waiting for Kingdom Hearts 4. The upcoming installment to the franchise will be the first main entry in the Lost Master arc, and its first trailer released back in April, alongside trailers for mobile titles, Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road and Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link.
While it may have taken a long time for Kingdom Hearts 3 to release after it was formally announced in 2013, fans of the series usually haven't had to wait to long for games. Based off of the announcements of previous titles to their release dates, Kingdom Hearts 4 is likely coming out much sooner than some fans may think.
How Long Kingdom Hearts Games Take to Release
Unlike Kingdom Hearts 3, most games haven't taken a long time to develop. The original game began development in 2000 and released a couple of years later, on March 28, 2002 in Japan and September 17, 2002 in North America. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories was announced a year later and was released on November 11, 2004 in Japan and December 7, 2004 in North America. The next game in the series was Kingdom Hearts 2, was in development at the same time as Chain of Memories and would release on December 22, 2005 in Japan and March 28, 2006 in North America, on the series' fourth anniversary.
The next three games in the series, Kingdom Hearts: Coded, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, were all announced at the same time in September 2007. Kingdom Hearts: Coded was the first to release, being an episodic game on mobile devices that released monthly from June 2009 to January 2010. Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days came out on May 30, 2009 in Japan and September 29, 2009 in North America, and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep released on January 9, 2010 in Japan and September 7, 2010.
The next game, Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance was announced at 2010's E3, and the game itself came out on March 29, 2012 in Japan and July 31, 2012 in North America. Afterwards, the series would be re-released through collections and a few mobile prequels were made, both before and after Kingdom Hearts 3. The most recent console installment to release was Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, which was announced in 2020 and came out in November of that year worldwide.
When Could Kingdom Hearts 4 Come Out
Based off of when Square Enix began developing previous games, when they were announced, and when they finally released, it's very possible that Kingdom Hearts 4 could come out next year, and the latest that it will release is ideally 2025. Seeing as how Kingdom Hearts 4's first trailer showed a lot more than the first trailer of previous titles did, revealing a lot of gameplay and showing off some cutscenes, it seems that the game is significantly further along in development than some games before it, especially Kingdom Hearts 3.
It should also be noted that while Kingdom Hearts 3 began development in 2013, Square Enix decided to switch engines and had to start over from the beginning later on, which was a huge reason why it took so long for the studio to finish it. Since Kingdom Hearts 3, it was also revealed that there are currently four separate teams working on games in the franchise, so the development of other games, such as Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road, and the upcoming Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link, shouldn't interfere with the release of Kingdom Hearts 4. Unless if something unexpected happens, players should look forward to seeing how Sora's journey continues in Quadratum within the next three years.
Kingdom Hearts 4 is currently in development.