Nintendo recently announced that the hotly-anticipated sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has been delayed from its original release date of 2022 to Spring 2023, following which the Kyoto-based gaming giant’s stock plummeted by a margin of 6%.
This comes shortly after Nintendo shares saw a rather steep rise of 25% year-to-year (as reported by Reuters). However, what makes this slump rather interesting is that despite the delay to the Zelda sequel, Nintendo still has number of major titles set to release this year, from Splatoon 3 and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet to Nintendo Switch Sports and Xenoblade Chronicles 3.
“If there’s a year Nintendo can afford to push Zelda out of, it’s this year. The fiscal year hasn’t even started yet and they have spread out all of these potential blockbuster titles,” said Serkan Toto, founder of the Kantan Games consultancy.
The delay also means that Nintendo’s open-world offering won’t be competing with other premier releases of the genre such as the likes of Elden Ring, Horizon Forbidden West, and the upcoming Starfield for both sales and critical acclaim, giving the game a much brighter spotlight to shine when it releases next year.