2021 is the year of The Legend of Zelda’s 35th anniversary, and most have been expecting Nintendo to do something special for the occasion. Largely, the expectations have been that they will do something similar to what they did for Mario’s 35th anniversary last year, and re-release older games on the Switch. In the recent Nintendo Direct however, other than the announcement of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, no other announcements for Zelda were made.
Recently, insiders have suggested that announcements for The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD are still forthcoming, and in a recently published report on GamesBeat, Jeff Grubb provided some more insight into that. According to Grubb, the relative lack of Zelda announcements is driven by marketing decisions, not only because Super Mario’s 35th anniversary plans are still ongoing, but also because Nintendo wants to maximize the visibility and sales of each planned Zelda release as much as possible.
“Nintendo will want to position The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD out in front,” Grubb writes. “This is one of the biggest reasons that Nintendo didn’t talk about other Zelda beyond Skyward Sword HD in its latest Direct video event. The company doesn’t want other Zelda games to distract from its attempts to bring back Skyward Sword. Sure, it could’ve released Wind Waker and Twilight Princess at the same time, but the company wants Zelda fans all focused on Skyward Sword.”
Grubb goes on to state that Nintendo will maintain a “steady cadence” of releases to celebrate the series’ Zelda anniversary, adding that plans for The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD are likely to be announced this Summer, shortly after the launch of Skyward Sword HD.
Meanwhile, development on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s sequel is also ongoing, with series producer Eiji Aonuma recently confirming that Nintendo will be providing a proper update on the game later in the year.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD launches for the Nintendo Switch on July 16.
