The absence of the Wii U’s upcoming new mainline Legend of Zelda game was felt during Nintendo’s E3 Digital Event yesterday, despite the 3DS getting two upcoming Legend of Zelda spin-offs soon, with The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes coming at the end of this year, and Hyrule Warriors: Legends launching in early 2016. This E3 absence for the Wii U game comes on the heels of it missing its planned 2015 release window, and the game now being set to launch in 2016. Despite that also being the year that Nintendo draws back the veil on their new gaming platform however, Link’s newest adventure will still be staying right where it is.
While making the E3 press rounds to discuss Star Fox Zero, revealed to be a collaboration between Nintendo and developer, PlatinumGames yesterday, Miyamoto headed off any inquiries about the new (and still untitled) Legend of Zelda game that’s on the way to Wii U. Miyamoto stressed that the game will be shown later with lots of fanfare, despite being completely absent from E3 this year, and that it’s still coming to Wii U exclusively. When it was suggested that the game could be making the leap to the upcoming new Nintendo gaming platform, code-named NX, Miyamoto directly stated that the new Legend of Zelda game is not planned for NX, and will be proudly staying on Wii U.
There’s always time for Nintendo to reverse the decision, similar to 2006’s The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which Nintendo originally insisted would stay GameCube-exclusive, despite the GameCube version ending up with a Wii port for that console’s launch that very same year. For now though, the new Legend of Zelda game is still not going to be allowing would-be players who have yet to pick up a Wii U to skip a generation.
Keep adventuring to Eggplante for all news and updates on the Legend of Zelda series.