Nintendo has announced the upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel has been delayed until Spring 2023.
In a video update, series producer Eiji Aonuma says that the team needs a bit more development time on the title. “For those of you who have been looking forward to a release this year, we apologize. The adventure in the sequel will take place not just on the ground as in the previous game but also in the skies above. However, the expanded world goes beyond that, and there will be an even wider variety of features you can enjoy, including new encounters and new gameplay elements,” Eiji Aonuma said in a video update on Nintendo’s Twitter.
Aonuma adds that the delay is necessary to ensure players experience “something special” and that the entire development team continues to work diligently on this game. It would seem history is repeating itself as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was originally slated to launch on the Wii U in 2016. As we know things changed as it was Nintendo’s intention to release The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Nintendo Switch back in March 2017 which went on to sell 25.8 million copies.
Even though the sequel was officially revealed at Nintendo’s E3 2021 direct, Nintendo has been holding back the sequel name according to Nintendo’s Bill Trinen who says it’s intentional as “Zelda names are kind of important.” That’s not to say that we don’t have an idea of the sequel’s name as Nintendo Life’s Paul Gale revealed on his own website that the sequel could be called “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of Duality,” according to his sources. Gale’s source claims the name contains the upcoming game’s “main hook.”
The duality name is a nod to the first game and is a reference to the “duality between character abilities, on land and floating regions, past and present, darkness and light, etc.” This should all be taken with a grain of salt as the name was featured in a list of many templates games which was a certain amount of time ago, so there is a chance the name could be something entirely different right now.
