Kingdom Hearts fans are witnessing one door closing and another opening up — literally. Square Enix has announced that Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link, the mobile spin-off title that was being developed for Android and iOS, has been cancelled.
The company made the announcement in a statement shared on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday explaining its decision to cancel the game, which was set in Master Xehanort’s hometown of Scala ad Caelum between the events of Kingdom Hearts Union Cross and Kingdom Hearts Dark Road. Square Enix said it would be hard to serve up a Kingdom Hearts live-service game that fans would enjoy for a long time despite its best efforts to fine-tune its development and hold multiple closed beta tests, causing the game to be delayed more than once. The release of Missing Link was last delayed to the end of 2024, but that has since passed.
The statement reads in part, “We have made the decision to cancel the development of Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link. We wish to convey our heartfelt apologies to everyone who has been looking forward to the start of service. Although we worked hard on developing and adjusting the game in the hope that it would be enjoyed by lots of players, we determined that it would be difficult for us to offer a service that players would find satisfactory over a long period of time, leading us to the decision to cancel development.”
The rest of the statement reveals a silver lining that Kingdom Hearts 4 is still in development. The sequel to Kingdom Hearts 3, which would kickstart The Lost Master Arc, was announced alongside Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link during the franchise’s 20th Anniversary event in Japan on April 10, 2022. However, Square Enix only released the announcement trailer, which finds Sora taking on a real-world form (sort of) in a city inspired by modern-day Tokyo, and went radio silent on updates for the game for the last three years.
Kingdom Hearts 4 has yet to receive a release date.
