2017 was a big year for The Legend of Zelda, with Breath of the Wild winning Game of the Year at The Game Awards and earning near-universal acclaim from various publications. Now that Breath of the Wild's Champions' Ballad DLC is available, though, it's time to look to the franchise's future, and as it turns out, the next game in the series is already in development.

This is according to series producer Eiji Aonuma, who revealed as much in Breath of the Wild's artbook The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Masterworks. Unfortunately, Aonuma didn't reveal anything else about the next Legend of Zelda game beyond the fact that it is currently in active development.

For fans of Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda in general, the fact that the next game in the series is now in development is exciting news. Unfortunately, with Breath of the Wild having just released earlier in 2017, it will likely be years before we learn anything concrete about the project.

News on the next Legend of Zelda may be far off, but that doesn't mean we can't make an educated guess as to what direction the new game will take. As it stands, there seems to be two different possibilities for the new Zelda, the most obvious being that it will be an open world game like Breath of the Wild. After all, Aonuma has said in the past that he believes open world is the future of Zelda, so it makes sense for the sequel to build on Breath of the Wild's foundation.

If the next Zelda is an open world game like Breath of the Wild, it will be interesting to see if it is able to innovate enough to stand apart from its predecessor. Breath of the Wild has set the bar extremely high for open world Zelda games, so the development team will have to deliver something truly special to meet expectations. However, Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi has already indicated that he has a lot of ideas for the next game, and those plans may even include multiplayer gameplay.

If the next Zelda is not an open world game, chances are it will be a 2D top-down style game in the vein of A Link to the Past or more recently, A Link Between Worlds. Aonuma has suggested that the franchise won't abandon this style of Zelda game despite Breath of the Wild's popularity, but it's easy to see how some fans may be disappointed if the new Zelda isn't another massive open world adventure.

Ultimately, fans will just have to wait and see what form the next Legend of Zelda game will take. Knowing Nintendo, it will likely be years before we see anything substantial on the project, so stay tuned.

 The next Legend of Zelda game is in development for unspecified platforms.