The sequel to Zelda: Breath Of The Wild won’t be released until spring 2023, with Nintendo only offering a brief tease of new information.
Today has certainly been the day for low-key announcements of major news. First it was Sony and its revamp of PS Plus and now Nintendo has dropped the clanger fans have long feared: the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild will not be released this year.
Producer Eiji Aonuma appeared in a short video to make the announcement, apologising to fans but offering no real explanation other than the game needs more time.
The release date is now given as spring 2023, which may mean Nintendo is aiming for an early March date to match that of the original game in 2017.
Nintendo, more than almost any other developer in the world, has struggled to cope with the problems brought on by the pandemic, and given new Zelda games often end up being delayed anyway this isn’t much of a surprise.
Although no mention was made of new gameplay footage during the video, the brief shot of Link handling a strangely warped sword is new and wasn’t part of the last reveal in June 2021.
Based on the hilt it seems to be a broken or corrupted Master Sword, which will no doubt be a major element in the new game’s story – about which nothing official is yet known.
We don’t even know the game’s name yet as it won’t be called Breath Of The Wild 2 but Nintendo feels that revealing its real title will give too much away at this stage.
When we’ll see any more of the game is now unclear, as while it should have been a shoe-in for whatever E3 equivalent event Nintendo is planning this summer the new delay means all bets are off.
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