Why You Can Trust CNET Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 Is Called 'Tears of the Kingdom,' Launches in May 2023
Here's another look at the anticipated sequel to Breath of the Wild.
Link returns next year in the highly anticipated sequel to Breath of the Wild.
Nintendo capped off its September Direct presentation with a new trailer for the highly anticipated sequel to Breath of the Wild, now officially titled The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The game is set to launch for Nintendo Switch on May 12, 2023.
Although brief, the trailer offers a look at some new gameplay footage, showcasing more landscapes and several new powers that Link will be able to wield in the upcoming game. You can watch the full video below.
The Breath of the Wild sequel was first revealed during E3 2019, and was initially planned to launch in 2022. Earlier this year, however, Nintendo announced it was delaying the game to spring 2023 to give the team some additional development time.
"We previously announced that we were aiming for a 2022 release for this game. However, we have decided to extend our development time a bit and change the release to spring 2023," Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma said in a video message. "For those of you who have been looking forward to a release this year, we apologize."
While Nintendo has rarely released direct sequels to Zelda games in the past, Aonuma previously explained that the impetus behind Tears of the Kingdom is the wealth of ideas the development team came up with when making DLC for the first game.
"When we released the DLC for Breath of the Wild, we realized that this is a great way to add more elements to the same world," Aonuma said. "But when it comes down to technical things, DLC is pretty much data -- you're adding data to a preexisting title. And so when we wanted to add bigger changes, DLC is not enough, and that's why we thought maybe a sequel would be a good fit."
The original Breath of the Wild launched alongside the Nintendo Switch in March 2017, and it would go on to become one of the most critically and commercially successful games in the franchise, selling more than 26 million copies.
