With The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild launching on Mar. 3, 2017 on the Switch and Wii U, Nintendo announces fans will be able to purchase an “Expansion Pass” for extra content.
In a post by Nintendo UK, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will cost players £17.99 or €19.99, which works out to $22.42 USD, but no American price has been announced. The Expansion Pass will come in three waves with the first one “Expansion Pass Bonus” launching alongside the release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. In this pack, players will receive three new treasure chests found in the Great Plateau containing exclusive garments for Link, along with some other items. The second pack is planned for summer 2017 and includes a new Cave of Trials, a hard mode, and an additional Map feature. The third pack launches in winter 2017 with a new story, dungeon and challenges.
This is the first time Nintendo has gone down the season pass route, but they have regularly brought new content to the online mode for Splatoon, though those were free events, and they’ve brought DLC to other titles like Super Smash Bros. in the form of new characters. Interestingly enough, the hard mode was included in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD for no fee, while the Cave of Trials was included in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD with its packed in Wolf Link Amiibo. This might be a look into the future of how Nintendo will handle DLC going forward.
“The world of Hyrule which we created for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is so large and vibrant that we wanted to offer more for players to experience within it,” said The Legend of Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma in a press release on the Nintendo UK site. “With this new Expansion Pass, we hope that fans will play, explore and enjoy the game even more.”
Considering the DLC Pack 2 contains an all-new story mode, it feels like Nintendo is taking its first serious steps in providing support that players have become accustomed to on other platforms since the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 generation. It’s important to note that only the UK branch has promoted this news, while Nintendo of America has yet to announce anything.
