Summary
- The switch to an open-world was a major success for the Zelda franchise, with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom becoming best-selling entries.
- The next Zelda game is likely to be an open-world adventure similar to Tears of the Kingdom, but the release timing is still unknown. It could potentially coincide with the launch of Nintendo's next hardware.
- Positioning a Zelda game as a launch title for a console has historically been a strong move for Nintendo, greatly impacting sales. Making the next Zelda game a launch title would result in a surefire sales juggernaut.
After The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's win for Best Action/Adventure Game at The Game Awards 2023, as well as Eiji Aonuma's comments on the future of the franchise, where Zelda goes from here is anyone's best guess. Both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom established that the switch to an open-world was an absolute win for the franchise, with both games being two of the best-selling entries in the more than 35 years of Zelda's history and existing as a substantial shot in the arm for the series as a whole. If there is one thing the next Zelda game should borrow from its predecessors other than an open world, though, it's arguably the timing of its release.
That the next Zelda game will be an open-world adventure similar to Tears of the Kingdom is a known quantity, with series producer Eiji Aonuma on record stating that fans should expect the next game in the series to follow in the footsteps of its Nintendo Switch predecessors. What's less known, though, is when fans can expect the eventual release of the next game in the series. With the Nintendo Switch's successor likely to release sometime in the next 1-2 years, it's the perfect time for the Zelda franchise to come full circle and launch with Nintendo's next hardware, just like Breath of the Wild did.
Zelda Games Arriving as Launch Titles for Nintendo Hardware is a Rarity
It might come as a shock to realize that The Legend of Zelda franchise actually only has two entries throughout its entire history that have arrived as launch titles for a new piece of Nintendo hardware. The first is 2006's The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which was both a launch title for the Nintendo Wii and the first Zelda game to release as a cross-gen title. Similarly, Breath of the Wild's arrival in 2017 signaled it as both the first Nintendo game for the new Nintendo Switch and as the last first-party game for the ill-fated Wii U.
Positioning a Zelda game as a launch title for a console has traditionally been an incredibly strong move on Nintendo's part, with both Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild's sales corresponding accordingly. Twilight Princess far outsold The Wind Waker at a rate of 2-to-1, and Breath of the Wild currently stands as the best-selling title in The Legend of Zelda series, with nearly 33 million units sold. Considering that Tears of the Kingdom is on-track to surpass it, with 19 million units sold in record time, it's not hard to imagine the next Zelda game being a surefire sales juggernaut as a launch title for the Switch's successor.
The Next Zelda Game Doesn't Necessarily Need to be Tears of the Kingdom's Follow-Up
Current rumors place the Switch's successor as arriving sometime either late in 2024 or in 2025, so it begs the question of how the Zelda team could possibly produce a proper follow-up to Tears of the Kingdom in a fraction of the time to have it line up with the console's launch. Maybe instead of having the next Zelda game be a new mainline entry, it should instead be a remake of an older, beloved title that launches as a hardware showcase for Nintendo's next piece of hardware.
Remakes are not something foreign to the Zelda series, with the Link's Awakening remake on Switch serving as both an excellent reminder of the joy inherent in "classic" Zelda and a proof of concept of how great other remakes of 2D titles in the series could be. While the most obvious candidate would be to give A Link to the Past the remake treatment, there's equal argument to be made for the Oracle games to get a chance to shine. Whatever the case, the next Nintendo console and Zelda game should arrive hand-in-hand.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 95 /100 Critics Rec: 97%
- Released
- May 12, 2023
- ESRB
- Rated E for Everyone 10+ for Fantasy Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- Engine
- Havok
- Cross-Platform Play
- N/A
- Cross Save
- N/A
WHERE TO PLAY
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to the beloved open-world adventure, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This installment once again sees Link and Zelda battling to protect Hyrule from falling to Ganondorf. This new adventure takes place in the same land of Hyrule as Breath of the Wild but sees something called the Upheaval, which allows link to travel to Sky Islands, as well as deep into the Depths beneath Hyrule. Players can use special abilities to fuse together weapons, and build items to help them progress through the release.
- Franchise
- The Legend of Zelda
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
- Genre(s)
- Adventure, Action, Open-World
- How Long To Beat
- 59 Hours
- Metascore
- 96
