Kingdom Hearts 4 gets a development update: the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth team is handling it

Naoki Hamaguchi, the director of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, has confirmed in a new development update that Kingdom Hearts 4 is being handled by Square Enix’s Creative Studio I, the in-house team behind Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

So yes, Square Enix is juggling Kingdom Hearts 4 and the third, still-undated Final Fantasy 7 remake game at the same time. Hamaguchi didn’t say one single team is making both games, only that both projects fall under the same studio banner, which likely means separate teams working within the same division.

That also helps explain why updates on Kingdom Hearts 4 have been so thin since its 2022 reveal. Creative Studio I is managing big-budget RPGs that take time: technically demanding projects with heavy cinematic presentation and the kind of large marketing push Square Enix usually saves for its biggest releases. Kingdom Hearts 4 is still one of the company’s major projects, right there with Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

If you were starting to think Kingdom Hearts 4 had been pushed behind Final Fantasy 7, this update from Hamaguchi should ease some of that concern, especially since the reveal trailer showed off a more realistic art style, a new setting, and the opening of the Lost Master Arc, and then… not much followed.

You still can’t download Kingdom Hearts 4 anywhere. There still isn’t a release date for it, or for the last Final Fantasy 7 remake entry.