Breath Of The Wild Sequel Delayed To 2023, Nintendo Apologizes

Please don’t shoot the messenger. The Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has been pushed to spring 2023, Nintendo announced in a brief video today.

“We previously announced that we were aiming for a 2022 release for this game,” Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma said. “However, we have decided to extend our development time a bit and change the release to spring 2023. For those of you who have been looking forward to release this year, we apologize.”

The Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild—which you and everyone you know simply calls BotW 2—was first announced at E3 2019. It then spent two years languishing in Rumor Land before popping up again at last year’s E3, where a splashy, if brief, trailer featured Link falling through the air in shots reminiscent of 2011’s Skyward Sword. In today’s announcement, Aonuma noted how BotW 2 is set in both the land, the skies, and “beyond.”

Following a no-show at December’s Game Awards, “botw 2″ started trending on social media because, three years and counting into the marketing push, Nintendo still hadn’t revealed the game’s official name. (No, Nintendo did not finally pull back the curtain in today’s announcement. The title is currently withheld because it mayyyybe possibly potentially could reveal key details about the game’s narrative.)

The Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was a linchpin of Nintendo’s impressively stacked release slate for the year, alongside games like Splatoon 3, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Bayonetta 3, a brand-new Mario Strikers (hell yeah), and a new generation of Pokémon games, Scarlet and Violet versions. Even without BotW 2, Switch players have plenty to avail themselves of this year, though they’ll have to wait a bit longer for this particularly anticipated sequel.

“In order to make this game’s experience something special, the entire development team is working diligently on this game, so please wait a little while longer,” Aonuma said.