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Nintendo
- The next Legend of Zelda game, Tears of the Kingdom, will release on May 12, 2023.
- Nintendo revealed the game's title and release date alongside a new trailer on September 13.
- Tears of the Kingdom will be a Nintendo Switch exclusive, and is a direct sequel to 2017's Breath of the Wild.
It's been five years since the release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and three years since Nintendo announced they were working on a sequel. Since 2019, news about the game has been sparse.
But during Tuesday's Nintendo Direct, we got more news about this new Legend of Zelda game than we ever have before.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will release in May 2023
Tuesday's Nintendo Direct ended with a short trailer for the next Zelda game. And that trailer ended with two reveals:
- The new game is titled The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
- It's planned for release on May 12, 2023.
These are both big pieces of news. Up until this point, the game had only been referred to as "The Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild." And all we knew about the release date was that Nintendo had planned it for "Spring 2023."
No one is quite sure what the title refers to yet — in fact, we don't even know what definition of the word "Tear" it's using. Is it a tear you cry? Or like a tear in a piece of paper? Until someone at Nintendo actually says the name aloud, your guess is as good as ours.
It's also important to note that even though Nintendo has given us May 12, 2023 as an official release date, it's not necessarily set in stone. Plenty of Zelda games in the past have experienced delays, even after receiving a solid release date. This game was originally planned for 2022 after all. Nintendo seems determined to ship Tears of the Kingdom in 2023, but there are no guarantees.
It'll release exclusively on the Nintendo Switch — unless Nintendo suddenly reveals a new console, like the rumored Switch Pro. And it'll likely cost $ 59.99 on release like most Nintendo games.
Tears of the Kingdom is a sequel to 2017's Breath of the Wild
Games in the Legend of Zelda series are all connected by one long and confusing timeline. Despite this, it's rare for a Zelda game to ever receive a direct sequel that features the same characters in the same time period.
This is a big reason why fans are so hyped for Tears of the Kingdom: It's a direct sequel to 2017's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Breath of the Wild received universal acclaim upon release, and is considered one of the best Zelda games — if not one of the best video games — of all time. Even five years after its release, it still routinely makes the list of the Switch's bestselling games each month.
Nintendo
All this is to say that Tears of the Kingdom has a lot of weight on its shoulders. The few trailers we've seen of the new game make it look like it'll keep Breath of the Wild's art style and general gameplay systems. But when it comes to the story, we don't have much to go on.
However the plot pans out, we're sure that Nintendo will reveal more in the coming months.
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