Square Enix has opened up a new website for The World Ends With You displaying a countdown to a date when more information will be revealed.

With the anime on the horizon, you might assume the new countdown is related to that, but there are a few reasons why that seems unlikely.

First, the anime has its own website.

Second, the official Twitter account for the anime did not share the link to the countdown page.

Third and most significantly, the official Twitter account for Square Enix’s 1st Development Division did, in addition to changing their Twitter avatar and header to match.

All of these things make it feel incredibly likely that the news coming at the end of this countdown is not related to the anime at all, but to a game.

Of course, hoping for a TWEWY sequel has ended in disappointment many times in the past, such as during the infamous 2012 countdown that ended up being for the mobile port of The World Ends With You, which in turn teased a sequel that came to nothing before being referenced again in the Final Remix’s new content. So I’m bracing myself for this to be for a mobile port of The World Ends With You: Final Remix.

But I really want a The World Ends With You sequel, so here’s hoping this is actually the news we’ve been waiting for! What do you think the countdown is for?

Although Anime Expo 2020 was cancelled due to the pandemic, it’s been replaced with a live stream event called Anime Expo Lite that will take place on July 3 and 4.

Along with the announcement of Anime Expo Lite, they also revealed the cover for the Anime Expo 2020 program guide, which features… The World Ends With You?

The art shows Anime Expo mascot characters Ai and Xeno in Shibuya along with the main cast of The World Ends With You. No explanation has been given for why they picked The World Ends With You for this year’s theme.

(So don’t get too excited over those two in the back. They’re the Anime Expo characters.)

Looking back at past Anime Expo program covers, they usually focus on either the mascot characters specifically or Anime Expo experiences. I can’t find any examples where they picked a specific game as the central theme like they did this year.

So… does it mean something?

I want to believe it does. The World Ends With You hasn’t seen any news since the Switch port came out in 2018, so for Anime Expo to prominently feature it feels like a strange choice unless something is on the horizon. I’ve wanted a sequel ever since I finished the original, and I’d hoped the Switch version would make that possible.

On the other hand, maybe the people running Anime Expo are simply big TWEWY fans and wanted to highlight it in this year’s art.

Still, though, I want to believe.

Do you think the Anime Expo The World Ends With You art is a sign of TWEWY news to come? Will we finally get a sequel? Or do you think this will come to nothing? Either way, I’ll be looking forward to Anime Expo Lite on July 3-4 in the hopes that they really do have something planned.