It seems Legend of Zelda fans have reason to be excited, as industry insider Jeff Grubb has been told that something not-related to Tears of the Kingdom is happening with the franchise at some point later this year. The Legend of Zelda is one of Nintendo's biggest franchises, and so the company always has something cooking behind the scenes.
The recently-released Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the highest-rated game of 2023 so far and has been a massive sales success for Nintendo. One would think that Tears of the Kingdom would be enough for the Legend of Zelda franchise's representation in 2023, but now there are rumors that some kind of Zelda series announcement completely unrelated to Tears of the Kingdom will happen later this year.
This is according to industry insider Jeff Grubb, speaking on The Last of the Nintendogs podcast. During the podcast, Grubb made the claim that the Metroid Prime 2 remaster could be releasing soon, and then followed that up by saying exactly what his sources told him about Zelda: "Something not-related to Tears of the Kingdom is happening with Zelda this year." When asked if he meant that Nintendo would be releasing the long-rumored Switch ports of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD, Grubb made it clear that was not what he was implying. "I don't mean s***. I don't know what it means." It was also stressed that Nintendo's plans could change, so fans should keep that in mind.
Switch ports of Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD have been rumored for years, especially as Nintendo has been bringing many Wii U exclusive games to its newest console. Nintendo has also made it a point to revive popular GameCube games on the Switch, as evidenced by the Metroid Prime remasters, the recent Pikmin 1 and 2 shadow drops, and various other examples, so Twilight Princess and Wind Waker coming to Switch seems like a no-brainer. While Grubb doesn't know if the Zelda-related thing happening later this year has anything to do with the rumored Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD Switch ports, they still seem like the most logical explanation.
In the same podcast, Grubb suggested that Nintendo will host a Nintendo Direct event in September that's expected to take place around the same time as the Nintendo Live event in Seattle from September 1-4. If a Nintendo Direct does take place in September, perhaps this Zelda-related announcement will happen then. However, that's just speculation at this time, and so Zelda fans should keep their expectations in check.
In the meantime, some Zelda fans may be holding out hope for more Tears of the Kingdom content. There are some that believe Tears of the Kingdom DLC is on the way since Nintendo made DLC for Breath of the Wild, but nothing to that effect has actually been announced at the time of this writing.