On Tuesday The Legend of Zelda series producer, Eiji Aonuma appeared in a video on Nintendo’s official channels revealing that The Legend Of Zelda Breath of Wild sequel had been delayed and would now be released in Spring (Northern Hemisphere) 2023. The original game was a massive hit and many consider it not only the best game in the series but one of the best video games of all time, so having to wait a little longer to play the sequel will no doubt be disappointing. However, thankfully, given that some were predicting it to launch in December 2022 – 2023 is only a few extra months – and let’s be honest Zelda fans are used to a delay or two.
Two consequences…
That being said, the delay of such a flagship title into 2023 is interesting for at least two other reasons. One of the obvious ones is that it weakens Nintendo’s 2022 calendar. Now, I’m not saying 2022 now looks a little thin. In fact, the opposite is probably true. Remember, this year we’ve already had Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Triangle Strategy, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC and Kirby and the Forgotten Land. And we’re still looking forward to the Chrono Cross remake, Monster Hunter Rise’s Sunbreak Expansion, Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp, Nintendo Switch Sports, Mario Strikers Battle League, Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes. Live A Live, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Pokémon Violet/Scarlet not to mention possibly Bayonetta 3, Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope and Splatoon 3 too which are all still due this year. Sure these are not all first-party games but – they’ll all at least be synonymous with the Switch. It may even be because Nintendo has such a stacked 2022 that they felt confident they could delay BOTW2 into 2023. And who knows, delaying BOTW2 may open up a space for a port of another Zelda title (like the constantly requested Wind Waker) to the Switch.
The second (possibly more notable reason) that the delay is intriguing is that many are already predicting that the delay could coincide with the release of the update to the console. Now, we dived into what the ‘Switch 2’ could be and when it could release earlier in this month (check it out here). We predicted that the new console may even be released later than 2023 – even if it makes an appearance next year. However, Nintendo does have history of using a big title as a sort of crossover between two systems – heck Breath Of The Wild was that for the Wii U and the Switch. So, who knows – there could be something to those earlier predictions…
So about that Master Sword…
So while the delay is sure to bum many that were looking forward to exploring Hyrule’s skies this year, at least 2022 is a year seemingly filled with many titles to look forward to and while speculation still abounds – maybe the delay actually (finally) points to a more concrete basis for thinking that an update Nintendo console is on the way. And now, in the meantime, at least we can all speculate about what has happened to the Master Sword…