Nintendo revealed today that the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has been delayed to Spring 2023, after originally being set for a late 2022 release. The game’s delay is disappointing, but it’s not totally surprising, as recent events suggested that the game could be pushed back. BOTW 2 has been delayed to 2023, but the Switch will still prosper without it, as 2022 is full of exclusives for the system, as well as high-profile multi-platform titles.

The original Breath of the Wild was seen as a system-seller for the Nintendo Switch at launch, even though it was technically a multiplatform game, as it was also released on the Nintendo Wii U. The fact that a game as pretty as Breath of the Wild could run on a portable system was a great way to show off the power of the console. In terms of hardware, the Switch just barely stacked up against the PS4 and Xbox One and it’s blown out of the water by the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Despite this, the Nintendo Switch has outsold the Wii and the sales don’t appear to be slowing down, especially following the release of several high-profile Pokémon games over the past few months. Nintendo’s first-party exclusives are some of the biggest draws of the Switch and everyone is hyped to play the next entry in The Legend of Zelda series, especially as the developers have had the chance to improve upon some of the design choices that fans didn’t like in the original Breath of the Wild.

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The Legend of Zelda fans expected to play the sequel to Breath of the Wild at the end of 2022, but evidence started to pile up regarding a delay, which would push the game into 2023. The relative absence of the game from Nintendo’s recent events was telling, but the addition of high-profile titles to the Switch’s 2022 lineup also seemed as if they were preparing fans to wait for a new Legend of Zelda game.

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Fans Thought BOTW 2 Would Be The Switch’s Big Holiday Season 2022 Title

Nintendo closed its E3 2019 presentation with a teaser trailer for the sequel to Breath of the Wild, which featured a short video showing Link and Zelda meeting a new enemy, and Hyrule Castle ascending into the sky. There was no release date given in the trailer, so fans weren’t expecting it to arrive any time soon, especially as they were still waiting for Metroid Prime 4. The game made its next appearance during Nintendo’s E3 2021 show, with an extended look at the gameplay and the changes to the world, with Link exploring floating sky islands. The trailer ended with the reveal that the game will launch in late 2022, which many fans assumed would make it the Switch’s big holiday season game for that year. This gave the developers a year and a half of additional time to get the game ready, so everyone assumed it was a done deal. The fact that the game was missing from the February 2022 Nintendo Direct was slightly concerning, but most assumed it would be heavily featured during the E3 2022 event.

The Pokémon Company Has The Holiday Season Covered

The doubts about the Breath of the Wild sequel hitting its 2022 release date gained a lot of traction on Pokémon Day when The Pokémon Company announced that the Gen 9 Pokémon games are coming to Nintendo Switch at the end of the year. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are set to be released at the end of 2022 and will likely be the big holiday season games, in the same way that Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were in 2021. A new set of Pokémon games are big enough to carry the holiday season, especially if they adopt elements from Pokémon Legends: Arceus into the more traditional mainline formula.

Now that the Nintendo Switch has its big 2022 holiday season games, there is less pressure on the team behind the Breath of the Wild sequel to get the game out of the door. If the end of the year was looking barren, then there might have been an incentive for Nintendo to push the game out in November and just fix it with patches over time. If the holiday season is secure, then the latest Legend of Zelda game can safely be moved to Spring.

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The Switch’s 2022 Schedule Is Stacked, So BOTW 2’s Development Can Take The Extra Time

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet aside, the Nintendo Switch has a stacked 2022 lineup. In terms of exclusives, the system has already received Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Kirby and the Forgotten Land in 2022, both of which were highly acclaimed and have done well in sales. The Switch is set to receive games like Nintendo Switch Sports, Mario Strikers: Battle League, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series, Live A Live, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. There are also exclusives without set release dates, like Bayonetta 3, Splatoon 3, Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp, Front Mission 1st Remake, and Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope. Those were all just the exclusives, as there are also lots of third-party multi-platform games coming to the Switch this year, like Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong, A Plague Tale: Requiem, Digimon Survive, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, Sonic Frontiers, and Star Wars: Hunters.

The Switch has plenty of games coming in 2022 and even a few delays in the list above would barely make a dent. There are likely lots of Legend of Zelda fans who are disappointed in the delay, but if a delay means that the staff can avoid crunch and the final product will be better, then it should be pushed back. The Switch will have plenty of other games to keep fans occupied in the meantime. The absence of the next Breath of the Wild game might also prompt Nintendo to finally release Twilight Princess HD and Wind Waker HD on the Switch to fill the gap.

The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be released for the Nintendo Switch in Spring 2023.

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Scott Baird
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Scott has been writing for Screen Rant since 2016 and regularly contributes to The Gamer. He has previously written articles and video scripts for websites like Cracked, Dorkly, Topless Robot, and TopTenz.
A graduate of Edge Hill University in the UK, Scott started out as a film student before moving into journalism. It turned out that wasting a childhood playing video games, reading comic books, and watching movies could be used for finding employment, regardless of what any career advisor might tell you. Scott specializes in gaming and has loved the medium since the early ‘90s when his first console was a ZX Spectrum that used to take 40 minutes to load a game from a tape cassette player to a black and white TV set. Scott now writes game reviews for Screen Rant and The Gamer, as well as news reports, opinion pieces, and game guides. He can be contacted on LinkedIn.

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