Discussion When will the next non-remaster 3D mainline Zelda game release?

[TheMindOfThomas]

I agree with the notion they've been working on it since before TOTK released (so probably since 2022), and I think Nintendo will move heaven and earth to make sure they have it ready as soon as possible while still delivering a quality project.

I think it will be the Holiday 2027 game. They'll presumably have 3D Mario and Mario Kart to carry the first year, and Pokémon Generation 10 by Holiday 2026 at the latest. Animal Crossing could probably release anywhere in the 2025 - 2026 timeframe as well. That's more than enough heavily hitters for the first two years that would allow them to wait on Zelda until 2027. Any time beyond that is a massive risk imo.

 

[Aether]

The Legend of Zelda series is Nintendo's only mega project, need to spend five years as pure development time is very normal thing,Development time is not something they can control if they want to , the new general engine for Nintendo such as not to pursue the realistic competition of the company can only control them in the graphic related workload will not expand, and can not guarantee that the whole open air zelda s workload expansion. Considering that Fujibayashi explicitly said that totk's development time was five years, and that it would take four years even if you exclude the epidemic, it's reasonable to believe that the next Zelda will take around five years of pure development time, and will most likely end up being released in 2029.

I'm not saying that they can move far below 5 years, but I guess they want to keep 5 as the upper limit if possible and mitigate part of it by parallel development and trying to keep the scope from creeping up and up just cause it's possible

 

[majimazio]

It is reasonable to assume that the new 3D Zelda will be teased in 2027 and released in 2028-2029.
The idea that it will be released in 2027 is too optimistic.

 

[IamPeacock]

I'm kind of bummed that TotK released at the end of the OG Switch lifecycle. I kinda hoped that we could get a new Zelda at the start of every gen from then. Now we're back at the end of a gen.

 

[Cubs017]

I voted 2029. Games just take 5+ years these days, and with new hardware and hopefully a new world/mechanics to develop I could see it taking more than that.

 

[DittoM]

It took them 5 years to make Tears of the Kingdom, which reused Breath of the Wild’s world. Assuming the next game is on much more powerful hardware and doesn’t reuse the world again I don’t see this coming out any earlier than 2029, much to most people’s disappointment. Game development takes too long for these more powerful systems, and most large series are going to see one release per gen now.

 

[rickyson33]

I think they'll aim for 2028 but it'll end up being 2029

 

[Ricimer]

TOTK was a direct sequel with heavy asset/tech reuse and still somehow took 6 years. I'm betting another 6 years at minimum to 2029, probably delayed into 2030

 

[Marce-chan]

I believe it theoretically can come in 2027, having 4 years of full development(like BotW had) and about a year or so of pre-production (if it started when the game was mostly finished but before polish, by spring 2022).

The caveat is if it doesn't start development more or less right after the predecessor, much like BotW which started development in January 2013.

Tears of the Kingdom was expected to come much earlier than it ultimately did, but it was hit hard by COVID, which unleashed right in the middle of its development, and not only that, but its scope is just GIGANTIC and part of why that was possible or aimed at is because it had BotW map and assets, so they took their time making the sky, depths and the new physics and sound engine.

They'll start from scratch again this time, I believe it'll have a main gimmick, a new art style and either be set on another world or a vastly different Hyrule than that of BotW/TotK. They'll probably go wild with it on a iterative sequel again.

I don't think we should use Tears of the Kingdom's development time as a metric of "absolute earliest" since we don't know what they'll aim for in the next game, it won't have a global pandemic fucking things up and the team has already made two projects of increased scope in a row.

That said, I feel like 2028 is likelier if it started development in 2023.

 

[oldpuck]

Neither totk nor botw have actually been in development for more than 4 years. botw was conceived and developed in early 2013, and totk in early 2018. totk was actually completed in 2022, but the complexity of ultrahand and fully physical interactions made them take a year to optimize.

If you're still doing development - fixing bugs, getting frame rates up to acceptable - the game isn't complete. This is a weird meme I've seen crop up in several places, and it doesn't make sense. As long as you're still getting the software into an acceptable state for release, you're not "done" just because the art is done.

It's like saying "the game was done when the engine was finished, they just spent a few years doing level design." From the point of view of figuring out how long it will take for the next game to come out, downtime for the team and continued development counts.

 

[Steve]

I'm gonna say 2027-2028, since there's no Covid and i wouldn't be surprised if they used the same engine, but created a new art style.

But they'll be using NG Switch and i wouldn't be surprised if they took longer, since Zelda has always been an artistic showcase.

 

[SphereSeeker]

My gut feeling is telling me 2027.

 

[Aufhebung RPG]

If you're still doing development - fixing bugs, getting frame rates up to acceptable - the game isn't complete. This is a weird meme I've seen crop up in several places, and it doesn't make sense. As long as you're still getting the software into an acceptable state for release, you're not "done" just because the art is done.

It's like saying "the game was done when the engine was finished, they just spent a few years doing level design." From the point of view of figuring out how long it will take for the next game to come out, downtime for the team and continued development counts.

The reason why botw didn't officially go into production until 2013 is that in addition to developing the Model System, they were working on ALBW at the same time,, there was an epidemic factor in the middle of totk so there was a delay, the actual production cycle can indeed be said to have been only 4 years, and again I don't think that this type of reasoning can be placed on the next Legend of Zelda because there is no evidence at this time that Nintendo is having trouble developing theThere's no evidence that Nintendo is having trouble developing a next-gen general purpose engine, and with the next-gen engine being laid out well before 2023, there's no reason for them to wait for the engine to be developed before they officially go into production this time around.If there's anything to worry about, it's probably whether or not they need to take more time to familiarize themselves with the next-gen engine before going into formal production (presumably, based on Fujibayashi's comments in the interview, conceptualizing the gameplay mechanics and pre-production started around the second half of last year).

But I totally agree with your conclusion that it won't be released until 2029, because that's the length of development they'll need as the biggest project when faced with next-gen development.

 

[Hailinel]

TOTK was a direct sequel with heavy asset/tech reuse and still somehow took 6 years. I'm betting another 6 years at minimum to 2029, probably delayed into 2030

1. COVID
2. Changing of the underlying physics and other systems in the implementation of the game's entirely new mechanics.
3. All of the new assets.
4. COVID.
5. An entire year of QA and polish after becoming feature complete.

 

[Djehuty]

2029


The enxt game won’t be reusing botw and totk’s world.


Dev time will be very long.