Slowly but surely, fans of the franchise have been learning more about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2. Updates have understandably been far and few between, but it seems the next one could be further out. Last year, producer Eiji Aonuma had confirmed a 2022 release window for the highly-anticipated sequel but announced on Tuesday that Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 was being delayed into Spring 2023.
While it may be upsetting for many fans, it’s not particularly surprising. Nintendo already has a plentiful lineup for 2022, including Pokemon Scarlet and Violet in late 2022, and so it’s not like delaying it caused any serious harm. Giving the developer more time to work on Breath of the Wild 2 is only a good thing, as it means a more polished experience at launch.
Of course, that’s not to say that there wasn’t any blowback. Not only are many Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 fans upset, but it seems the delay impacted Nintendo’s stock prices as well. It seems that the overall price fell by 6% on Wednesday in Japan, the day after the announcement, as reported by Reuters. The thing is, this happens every time a game is delayed.
Whenever a game is delayed, there is some blowback from the community and from a financial standpoint. How severely can vary, but this is no real cause for concern partly due to the aforementioned Nintendo video game lineup this year. Furthermore, Nintendo had gained 25% year-to-date come Tuesday’s closing, and so it’s the natural reaction to a highly-anticipated video game being delayed.
Aonuma didn’t give fans much in the way of new content to look at in the meantime, although Nintendo almost certainly will by the end of the year. However, there were a few clips—some mostly treading past trailers—and there was one new scene with Link holding a defunct Master Sword. It’s consumed and broken, and so this may imply that Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 will feature a Master Sword repair quest, but how that all comes together isn’t fully yet known.
At the same time, many are hoping a new Zelda game still releases this year. While there have been some not-so-joking hopes for a Zelda Maker release, styled after the popular Super Mario Maker, many have also expressed a desire to see Wind Waker HD release on Switch to “make up” for Breath of the Wild 2’s delay. That’s not impossible, but fans won’t know for sure until more of Nintendo’s second half of its 2022 lineup is hammered out.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 is in development.
Source: Reuters