The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the fastest-selling Zelda game of all time, with ten million copies sold in its first three days of release. It’s also critically acclaimed and considered superior to its predecessor in almost every way. However, it was to release sooner.
Last year in March, series producer Eiji Aonuma announced that the open-world title had been delayed. It was a lengthy delay to Spring 2023, but he assured fans, “To make this game’s experience something special, the entire development team is continuing to work diligently on the game, so please wait a while longer.”
In a new interview with The Washington Post, Aonuma reveals that Tears of the Kingdom was indeed supposed to release last year. However, he decided to delay it to “make sure that everything in the game was 100 percent to our standards,” he said. Given the complex range of systems, the expanded scope, and the size of Hyrule (especially with the Sky Islands and Depths added), it was the right decision.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available on Nintendo Switch. Check out our official review here. Whether it will receive DLC remains to be seen, but Aonuma has confirmed that future installments will stick to the same open-world format.