March 3, 2023 marked 6 years since the launch of the Nintendo Switch alongside The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, making the console now on-track to surpass the previous record holder for the longest Nintendo hardware life cycle -- the NES. The upcoming release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom comes as Nintendo is at a crossroads, with their aging hardware still selling well and being home to some great exclusives but the future of the console somewhat uncertain. The position occupied by Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is similar to that of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us series, whose releases have typically signaled the transition from one Sony hardware generation to the next.
The release of The Last of Us in 2013 came just 5 months before the launch of the PlayStation 4 and served as one of the last flagship console exclusives on the PS3. Naughty Dog and Sony would repeat this same strategy again in 2020, with the release of The Last of Us 2 coming 5 months prior to the worldwide launch of the PlayStation 5. The arrival of a second Legend of Zelda title on a Nintendo console typically precludes an announcement of new hardware, indicating Tears of the Kingdom may be following in The Last of Us' footsteps as a highly anticipated console exclusive that bookends a hardware generation.
Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild Were Cross-Gen Zelda Releases
The development cycle for Legend of Zelda titles is often lengthy, occasionally even coinciding with mid-development changes in each game's direction or the intended hardware for targeted release shifting to a new generation. After originally being intended as a DLC expansion for Breath of the Wild, the scope and scale of Tears of the Kingdom grew into a full-fledged sequel. This changing of the game's size and transition into new standalone Zelda title also resulted in several delays for Tears of the Kingdom. These delays could put the title in a similar position as two other entries in the Zelda franchise - Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild.
As both a launch game for the Wii and one of the last first-party Nintendo titles for the GameCube, Twilight Princess' lengthy development and place as the second Zelda title in a single hardware generation secured its position as the first cross-gen entry in the franchise. Breath of the Wild followed a similar pattern in 2017, releasing as a launch game for the Nintendo Switch and as one of the last games for the WiiU. Both games were the second Zelda titles in a hardware generation, meaning it's not unreasonable to imagine Tears of the Kingdom releasing on the Nintendo Switch and then coming later to the Switch's eventual successor.
Tears of the Kingdom Could Be a Fitting Swan Song to the Nintendo Switch
In a move similar to The Last of Us and its sequel, Tears of the Kingdom may be the last high-profile first-party exclusive to come to current hardware. Both The Last of Us and The Last of Us 2 pushed the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 to their limits, respectively. The preview build of Tears of the Kingdom used in a recent hands-on session for games media showed that the game is taxing on Nintendo's aging hardware, with occasional frame rate drops and stuttering when completing complex actions in the game's sandbox or engaging in combat with multiple foes.
In a move that echoes historic precedent set by previous Zelda entries as well as Sony's release strategy for The Last of Us, Tears of the Kingdom should be the last first-party exclusive for the Nintendo Switch. Not only would this set up the opportunity for a more optimized version of the game to release on the Switch's successor, it would position the next Mario and Metroid Prime 4 to release on Nintendo's next console, making the most of the new hardware to provide gamers with the best experience possible.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be released on May 12, 2023, for the Nintendo Switch.