We’ve received some unfortunate news from Nintendo this afternoon as Eiji Aonuma has announced that The Legend of Zelda for Wii U won’t be hitting the console this year.
In fact, the game won’t even be at E3, according to a tweet from Nintendo and a Miiverse posting from the director himself.
The chances of this happening were always astronomically high. The game was first unveiled at E3 2014 and had a 2015 release date, a year many were surprised by. In fact, we were surprised any date was posted at all. When Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma showed off the game again at this December’s Game Awards, they assured fans of the series that the game was on track for a 2015 release (and that Star Fox would launch before it).
It appears now that the number one priority is a release date that jives most with building the best and most complete Zelda, according to Aonuma, rather than a game built around a release date.
We’ve always been fans of delaying games in the name of making them better, more polished, or more complete. With an open-world Zelda title, if it takes an extra year (or two) to get it right, we’re more than happy to give that time to the game’s creators to make it what it should be. This shouldn’t be a rushed experience.
Of course, we’re also disappointed that the game won’t be shown off at E3 2015, though that could also change at any moment. It would be bizarre to see nothing of the game that was shown off last year and presumably will be shown off at E3 2016, though weirder things have happened (we’re looking at you, The Last Guardian).
Here’s hoping that while we most definitely won’t get a demo of Zelda Wii U at E3 this year, maybe we’ll get a surprise glimpse at Hyrule for the next-generation at the show in Los Angeles in a few short months.
Until then, take a look at Mr. Aonuma’s video above explaining his dedication to crafting the “ultimate and most complete Zelda game.”