Nintendo has announced that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 has been delayed from its original 2022 window.
will not launch on time in 2022. Instead game has been given a Spring 2023 window, series producer Eiji Aonuma announced in a video update.
“For those of you who have been looking forward to a release this year, we apologize,” Aonuma said. “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.”
Aonuma said the delay was necessary to make sure the game’s experience is “something special” for players. “The entire development team is continuing to work diligently on this game,” he said.
Breath of the Wild was a launch title for the Switch in 2017. It went on to sell 25.8 million copies worldwide as of December 31, 2021, making it one of the best-selling Switch games ever.
Nintendo’s Bill Trinen has explained that Nintendo is purposefully holding back revealing the name of the sequel because “Zelda names are kind of important.” Reading between the lines here, it sounds like the sequel’s title will allude to some kind of story element.
“As for why we’re holding back on the name, you’ll just have to stay tuned because, obviously, Zelda names are kind of important,” Trinen said. “Those subtitles… they start to give little bits of hints about maybe what’s going to happen.”
He added: “[Breath of the Wild 2] is going to be shorthand and it’s natural for people to want to find a shorthand way to frame it. We’re still calling it the sequel to Breath of the Wild.”
During Nintendo’s E3 2021 briefing, the company revealed a new trailer for the game that may contain some clues about what to expect. Check out GameSpot’s Breath of the Wild 2 trailer breakdown video to learn more, while you can also see our Breath of the Wild 2 preorder guide.
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