Nintendo has announced through the voice of veteran producer Eiji Aonuma that the previously announced Legend of Zelda game for its Wii U platform will not be released later this year, as was originally stated, and the game will also skip this year’s E3 conference.
Aonuma released a video on the Nintendo of Europe Youtube channel entitled “Zelda Development Update – 27/3/2015 (Wii U)” during which he explained that the release timetable will be pushed back, as the development team is exploring new possibilities with the game. The producer apologized to fans expecting the game to come out in late 2015, but also stated that the game has “freedom of exploration previously unseen in any Zelda game”.
“As I have watched our development progress, I have come to think that rather than work with meeting a specific schedule as our main objective, and releasing a game that reflects only what we can create within that scheduled time, I feel strongly that our focus should be to bring all these ideas to life in a way that will make Zelda on Wii U the best game it can possibly be” said Aonuma within the video.
At the same time, the official Nintendo of America Twitter account said that the development team has decided not to showcase the game at the popular Entertainment Electronic Expo (E3) event, scheduled to take place mid-June in Los Angeles.
The Legend of a Zelda game for the Wii U, with the title still being a work in progress, was first announced more than two years ago. It will be the first original game in the Zelda series which will be produced in high definition graphics, and the second one overall after the 2013 HD remake of The Wind Waker. The practice of pushing back release dates for Zelda titles isn’t a new one for Nintendo, with five other games being released the year after they were first announced to appear: Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword.
The action-adventure series is one of the most popular in gaming history, with most of the 18 released games since 1986 receiving widespread critical acclaim. Notably, the last original Zelda game, 2013’s A Link Between Worlds received numerous overall game of the year awards, despite being released for the
Image Source: Wii U Daily