It’s hard to imagine at this point, but early on 2022 was shaping up to possibly be one of the best years in gaming in a long time. The stars were aligning, and so were the tears. The kingdom’s tears to be exact. Nintendo finally seemed poised to deliver another breakthrough Zelda game on time. The investor presentations and trailers all kept listing it as “Coming 2022.” But it never came. Instead, it got a new name and a delay.
Tears of the Kingdom, which grew out of a Breath of the Wild DLC idea, will by the time it arrives next year, have taken just as long as Breath of the Wild did following Skyward Sword’s belated debut on the Wii. On the bright side, we could potentially be getting two franchise-defining Zelda games on a single console generation. A big achievement for Nintendo but an absolutely miserable prospect for the rapidly aging graphics chip powering my Switch.
Reason for delay: “in order to make this game’s experience something special”
New release date: May 5, 2023