The seminal Zelda franchise has mesmerized gamers ever since its release back in 1986. With its latest iteration, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, winning over gamers the world across and reinvigorating interest in the series. Nintendo fans have been waiting with bated breath for a sequel to the beloved game. However, those waiting for a 2022 release must readjust their hopes as it’s been delayed by a year.

Now slated for a Spring 2023 release, the hotly anticipated title has a lot of fan expectations to contend with. However, the disappointment from franchise diehards is palpable. Here are 4 reasons why the Zelda sequel could have been delayed.

4 reasons Nintendo could have delayed Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2

The first reason is potentially the most exciting. As noted by Zach from SwitchForce, new Nintendo hardware could be on its way! He mentions that the next leg of the Zelda adventure could launch simultaneously on both the Switch and its successor. Stating the Bloomberg report from September 2021, where the publication spoke to 11 developers who had Switch 4K development units.

Despite Nintendo’s insistence otherwise, Zach believes that the Switch Pro may still be happening. In fact, he cited Nate Drake’s podcast from October, where Nate discussed his sources in line with Bloomberg’s to announce this next console would hit between the end of 2022 and Q1 2023. Accordingly, Breath of the Wild 2 could be delayed to fall in line with the next Switch iteration.

The second reason pertains to a possible increase in the game’s scope. With the meteoric success of Breath of the Wild, Nintendo may wish to step things up for the sequel. Aonuma mentioned in the update video how the adventure takes to the skies this time around. Alongside a slew of new features. These additions may require longer to polish, especially considering the earlier game’s optimization issues.

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Another probable issue could be the all too common development delays stemming from the pandemic. Many major titles like Hogwarts Legacy and Pragmata suffered from these unforeseen delays. And as BotW2 was under-development during E3 2019, it could have been affected during the initial waves.

The fourth reason also stems from the pandemic. As it affected production globally, resulting in severe chip shortages. This severely impacted the video game industry, with Intel believing the shortage to continue into 2023.

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