Nintendo’s flagship game Zelda was expected out this year, but it has been announced that its release will be delayed until the new NX console comes out next March.
Zelda fans are a pretty loyal group, but they, just like anyone, don’t take too kindly to delays. So, Nintendo’s announcement that the next installation of the game, called Legend of Zelda, won’t be out until next March must have been passed through numerous high-level meetings before it was decided.
It’s a Wii U game but, as a way of helping it drive through the company’s next console, it’s being held back to be the main selling point of the NX.
The new Legend of #Zelda will be the focus of #E3 2016. It will launch simultaneously on both Wii U and NX in 2017 pic.twitter.com/FGqEdakXkt
— Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) April 27, 2016
Nintendo’s business model is a bit confusing at the moment. Console gaming, the area where the company is best known, is now largely dominated by Microsoft (XBox One) and Sony (Playstation 4).
Its pioneering, visionary president Satoru Iwata died suddenly last year, leaving Nintendo in a bit of shock. It was Iwata who drove the Wii U project, one which his replacement Tatsumi Kimishima previously claimed would fail.
Its financial situation isn’t great, with its Q3 results from 2015 revealing that the company’s best-selling item then was a range of plastic figurines called Amiibos – gone are the days of Duck Hunt on the SNES.
However, it has a few firm fingers in the pie of gaming life, with the likes of Pokémon, for example, continuing to drive profits towards the company. Later this year, the “next era” of Pokémon will be released, globally, in nine languages, with both games destined for the Nintendo 3DS – for those unaware, it’s the first new iteration of the franchise since 2013.
“We hope that, through Pokémon, players can overcome language barriers and interact with other players from around the world,” said CEO of The Pokémon Company, Tsunekazu Ishihara.
The hope must be that the wait for Legend of Zelda is worth it, too.
Zelda graffiti via Duncan C/Flickr
