Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link Cancelled After Three Years of Development

Square Enix has officially cancelled its mobile game Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link, ending development after more than 3 years since its first announcement.

The developers revealed the news on May 12, explaining that they could not create a game that would satisfy players over the long term. This GPS-based mobile game, similar to Pokémon GO, was meant to fill story gaps between other Kingdom Hearts titles.

"We have made the decision to cancel the development of Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link," the development team stated in their announcement. "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."

The journey of Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link began in April 2022 when Square Enix first revealed the game. The location-based gameplay wasn't announced until later, with beta testing starting in early 2023. The game then went through a period of silence for 9 months before Square Enix shared some unclear images in October 2023.

In November 2023, the company confirmed that Missing-Link would use geolocation features. This meant the game would constantly use a player's location to show their position on the in-game map and check how close they were to other players. During the beta test, in the UK and Australia, players could team up in groups of three.

This cancellation comes at a time when Square Enix has been trying to create successful mobile games using its popular franchises. However, the company has faced challenges in this area. They shut down several mobile games in the past 2 years, including Echoes of Mana, Dragon Quest Monsters: Super Light, SinoAlice, Nier Reincarnation, and War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius.

The Kingdom Hearts community has responded with mixed feelings about the cancellation. Many fans of Kingdom Hearts expressed disappointment on social media, hoping that story elements from Missing-Link might still appear in future games. Some even started a petition to show Square Enix that "fans still care."

There is some good news for Kingdom Hearts fans, though. The development team confirmed that work on Kingdom Hearts IV continues as planned. "The Kingdom Hearts series will continue. We are hard at work on Kingdom Hearts IV, and hope you'll continue to support the series as you keep an eye out for further updates," the team reassured fans.

Missing-Link was originally designed to explore what the official website called the "blank era" between Union X and Dark Road, periods in the Kingdom Hearts timeline that haven't been fully covered in the main games.