Kingdom Hearts 25th Anniversary D23 Panel Will Only Stream Live
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
Square Enix and Disney are hosting a 25th-anniversary Kingdom Hearts panel at D23 this weekend, but the livestream will not be archived as a video on demand, requiring fans to tune in live.
Disney and Square Enix are kicking off the twenty fifth anniversary celebration for Kingdom Hearts this weekend at the D23 fan expo, but fans will need to be ready to watch in real time. According to Square Enix, the special panel titled Deep Dive into Kingdom Hearts will stream on the official franchise YouTube channel on Saturday, August 15, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. EDT. In a move that has caught many community members off guard, the livestream will not be archived as a video on demand afterward, meaning anyone who misses the live broadcast will likely miss out entirely.
The one hour presentation features heavy hitters from both companies, including Nana Gadd from Disney and Pixar Games and Square Enix developer Tai Yasue. Longtime English voice actors Haley Joel Osment and David Gallagher are also slated to appear alongside Disney Character Voices executive Renée Johnson. While the panel is officially billed as a retrospective look at the making of the franchise, the presence of key developers has the community speculating about potential updates for Kingdom Hearts 4 following its surprising trailer appearance during a Nintendo Direct earlier this year.
Whether the broadcast delivers major game updates or strictly focuses on behind the scenes history and fan favorite lore discussions, the scarcity model chosen for the stream turns a standard developer panel into a can miss live community event. With platforms like YouTube making video archiving effortless, locking the presentation behind a strict live window feels like an unusual throwback to appointment television. Fans hoping for fresh looks at the upcoming multiplatform release across current gen hardware and Nintendo systems will simply need to clear their schedules. Original reporting comes from Polygon, where Corey Plante covered the initial announcement.
Tags: Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix, Disney, YouTube, Gaming News
Original article: Polygon