Square Enix has revealed that there will be a Kingdom Hearts 20th anniversary event in 2022, which will include new merchandise. This news is hot on the heels of Sora entering Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as the game's final DLC character, marking the arrival of one of the most highly-anticipated fighters in the history of the series.
2021 has been a strange year for video game anniversaries. There were some massive franchises that had anniversaries that were barely acknowledged, with The Legend of Zelda's 35th garnering little new content, especially compared to the Super Mario Bros. 35th anniversary in 2020. The 25th anniversary of the Persona franchise was hyped up by Atlus, but it has only produced some merchandise so far. By comparison, some smaller anniversaries had big reveals, with Quake's 25th anniversary leading to a modern remaster of the original game on all platforms.
2022 will have some big video game anniversaries as well, and at least one company is planning on celebrating. Square Enix announced the Kingdom Hearts 20th anniversary event shortly after Sora was revealed for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The trailer for the 20th anniversary event can be seen on the official Kingdom Hearts YouTube channel.
The Kingdom Hearts series will have a number of ways to celebrate leading up to the 20th anniversary. The Kingdom Hearts trilogy is coming to Switch, in the form of cloud versions of the individual games. This will be referred to as the Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece for Cloud collection, keeping with the Square Enix tradition of silly names. Starting today, the story mode of Kingdom Hearts Union χ [Cross] will be viewable in the game's new theater mode. The final chapter of Kingdom Hearts Dark Road will also be released this winter. 2022 will see the release of new Kingdom Hearts merchandise, including a chess set and suitcase. The date for the event hasn't been revealed, but if it matches the release date of the first Kingdom Hearts game in Japan, then it will happen on March 28, 2022.
The news that fans are expecting to hear is the reveal of a new Kingdom Hearts game. Kingdom Hearts 4 was leaked as part of the GeForce Now datamine, though it might be too soon to expect a new entry in the series. It's entirely possible that a new Kingdom Hearts spin-off game is coming in 2022, however, and it could be a focus at the series' upcoming anniversary event.
The 20th anniversary of the Kingdom Hearts series will take place in 2022.
Source: Kingdom Hearts/YouTube