Nintendo today released a video of Legend of Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma delivering an update on the development of the latest game for Wii U. Unfortunately it isn’t great news as Aonuma thinks the new Zelda title may not release in 2015.
According to Aonuma, the Zelda team have thought up of so many different gameplay enhancements to be added to this open world Zelda game, the game development now requires more time to add and hone these enhancements. Due to this, Aonuma states that the team is “no longer making a 2015 release our number one priority.” He believes fans will be rewarded with “the most complete and ultimate Zelda game.”
The Legend of Zelda games have had a history of delays, mainly for their biggest, most ambitious installments at the time. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was pushed back a year to 1998, Wind Waker was pushed a few months into 2003 and Twilight Princess was pushed a year to 2006 to launch with the Wii. It makes one think to see if Nintendo does the same thing with this new Zelda as they did with Twilight Princess and push it a year so it could launch with the new Nintendo console, codenamed NX.
To make the matters worse, Nintendo will be opting out of showing Zelda at E3. They have a tradition to only demo games releasing within the next twelve months, though some exceptions have applied like Bayonetta 2, which was shown in Nintendo’s booth for two E3s.