NintendObs Thinks: The path to launch for The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild 2.
From the skies above to the ground below and the return of an anthropomorphic mastermind.
The announcement of Breath of the Wild 2 being delayed to Spring 2023 earlier this week was actually a great thing. The game having remained silent for so long since E3 2021, even skipping the first Nintendo Direct of 2022 — one of a maximum of three such major Nintendo events for the very year when BotW2 was previously scheduled to launch — at that time it was already guaranteed Nintendo’s most anticipated title would not be dropping as promised. Therefore, that the delay was this minor for what beforehand would have objectively been a Holiday 2022 release means more than just the reassurance that Nintendo is commited to keeping the Sequel to The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild as a purely Nintendo Switch production. Pinpointing the game’s launch window down to a season also means they are now commited to a marketing and information schedule they are sure to have etched internally for the promotion and release of their most pivotal title since 2017.
So far, and in the near future as well, the Sequel to The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild is and will be following what I call “the Splatoon 3 model.” In fact, Splatoon 3 and BotW2 have a few things in common in their making that are also showing in their marketing. They are both direct sequels of Nintendo titles which within the previous paradigm of a five-year console lifecycle would have never been developed for the same hardware. Therefore, so far they are very similar to their prequels, which is why the first steps they’re taking to differentiate themselves from Splatoon 2 and from The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild is limiting their reveals to the improvements they bring towards features we’re already familiar with. For Breath of the Wild 2, this was first with the reveal of the skies above, capitalizing (among other less prominent yet important aspects of the E3 2021 Teaser) on illustrating how the vast world of The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild is now significantly bigger.
It’s only after having followed that “Splatoon 3 model” that the Sequel to The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild will then follow what I can the “Kirby and the Forgotten Land model.” Here, it is about showing very close to launch — usually in conjunction with making pre-orders available for the game — this one brand-new feature central to the development of the title itself that is going to connect the most with players and be most representative of the uniqueness of this brand-new title. In Kirby and the Forgotten Land, that factor was Car Mouth Kirby, less than two months before the game would arrive, driving everybody insane for its sheer cuteness. Once everything else will be in place for the Sequel to The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, its central feature will do exactly the same near launch, blowing us all away with its irrefutable ingenuity.