According to multiple sources, the next Legend of Zelda video game is already under development. The revelation is hidden within a note by Eiji Aonuma in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Master Works, which is an official artbook dedicated to the game itself. Besides revealing that the next Zelda game is currently under development, the book also includes multiple chapters depicting various characters, official art, setting pictures, and even a backdrop on what occurred before the events of Breath of the Wild in the Hyrule Historia.
The details are limited, though, when it comes to the next Zelda title that’s currently under development. The note seems to be the only source of information we can go on at the moment, which shouldn’t be much of a surprise to those who have a keen understanding for the amount of time it takes for a Zelda game to be released. It’s like waiting for the next A Song of Ice and Fire book from George R.R. Martin; patience is key. For example, development on Breath of the Wild began right after Skyward Sword was released in 2011, so that made it 6 years before the final product was officially distributed on the Nintendo Switch.
Game Informer had a chat with Zelda creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, at E3 2017 about the possibility that these games be released quicker than ever before. Miyamoto stated in the interview:
So I think there’s different ways a game can be delayed. One is that core mechanic or the core idea is not established, so in that sense it’s not a delay, but the development we can’t even start so it goes into kind of pending. And then there’s also the time where, uh, we see a foreseeable end to the development, But we realize that all the work that we’ve done thus far and then multiply it with that all is necessary, we kind of realize that, you know, we aren’t going to be done. So that, in that time, we usually increase the amount of staff involved with that. And if we still can’t do it, then it becomes a delay.
Miyamoto says that the fine tuning having to do with the new physics engine for Breath of the Wild is what caused the delay for its release. But he then says that “if we decide to use this physics engine in future games, it’ll be a lot quicker,” meaning that he and the Zelda team have figured out how to work the new engine in an efficient manner. The only thing that would slow the development of the next game down would be, as he states, “if we decide to use different media or different types of gameplay mechanics.”
If you have The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, make sure to check out the latest DLC, Champions’ Ballad, which launched earlier in December. Check out our review for the expansion here!
