February 6th saw the debut of a Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, cueing a collective shrugging of our shoulders.
Even by Partner Showcase standards, there wasn’t a ton on offer here, and this showcase came at a particularly bad time. A loud contingent of fans are worried that the Switch 2 has a grim future, and were eagerly awaiting a proper Nintendo Direct to relieve them of these worries. Particularly, many folks were banking on the debut of a teaser for the next game in The Legend of Zelda series,
This isn’t surprising, a certain delusional contingent of Zelda fans loudly demand news in the chat of every Nintendo Direct, even the one directly after the release of Tears of the Kingdom. We are rapidly approaching the point, however, where expecting a look into the future of Link and Zelda is ceasing to be an unrealistic expectation. Tears of the Kingdom will celebrate its third birthday in a couple months. The imminent reveal of a teaser trailer, followed by an additional two years of marketing, would put the release of the next title five years out from Tears of the Kingdom. A five-year gap is average for the Zelda series, and so it is understandable for folks to anticipate an announcement.
The rabbit hole goes deeper. Believe it or not, we are currently experiencing the longest gap between the release of a 3D Zelda game, and the announcement of the next 3D title, in the history of the franchise. We are sitting at 2 years, 8 months (or 32 total months) since Tears of the Kingdom was shown, with no inkling of what the future holds. For reference, the prior record was held by the gap between Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. Confirmation of development for a Zelda game for the Wii was announced during E3 in June of 2008, which just shy of a year and 7 months (or 19 months) after the release of Twilight Princess in November of 2006. We are currently beating the previous gap by a significant amount, with no end in sight.
This is the reason why many felt like we may be due for a look into what the Zelda team has cooking, and why they believed we may get that information this week, before the mysterious Direct was confirmed to be a Partner Showcase. It seems as though the longest gap in franchise history will continue to grow…
The counter-argument is of course, that while news on the next massive 3D title has been dry, we certainly have not been starved for Zelda content. The complete opposite, to be sure. Echoes of Wisdom is the flagship experience, being an excellent mainline title. Aside from that we’ve gotten the recent Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Switch 2 upgrades for both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, constant news revolving around the upcoming movie, consistent lore drops through Zelda Notes, and bunch of Zelda stuff in the newest update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Us Zelda fans have hardly been hurting for new content, and I do think that is probably something Nintendo is keeping in mind.
I have no doubt the next Zelda game is well on its way, but we might have to wait a bit longer. But then again, The Legend of Zelda’s 40th anniversary is next month…
How do you feel about the situation? Are fans erring by not counting the gap from Echoes of Wisdom instead? Do you feel that even with the gap, it still feels to soon? Or are you also of the opinion that we are due for a trailer? Let us know in the comments below!
Featured Image: Nintendo of America
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