Bringing Zelda Back at Just the Right Time
Zelda: Breath of the Wild has taken the gaming world by storm.
First announced in 2013 as a Wii U exclusive, the game was delayed twice before finally releasing alongside Nintendo’s new console, the Switch -and thankfully so. Having sold more copies than the Switch itself, Breath of the Wild has already begun to bring in the revenue and rewards for Nintendo after only 3 months on the market.
Helping Launch the Switch While Standing On Its Own
When Nintendo’s new console was first unveiled in October of 2016, it was met with eye rolls and what felt to be the same old thing gamers had gotten from the Wii and Wii U. As time continued on towards its short release window, more and more games began to come into the fold of the systems of library to build incentive and excitement.
Since its release, none have lived up to that hype when compared to Breath of the Wild. While it’s sales numbers are indeed staggering at this point and its average review score sits at a 9.5 or 10 out of 10, the actual adventure that comes with playing the game is unlike anything seen before in a Zelda game. With emphasis on open world exploration and with little to no direction on how to go about it, Breath of the Wild puts players in a new and familiar world that gives them all the more reason to explore it.
Because of the success that has come with Breath of the Wild, the Switch has seen a massive success on its own. With the library only just getting its feet wet, games such as Breath of the Wild have helped solidify the new console as one to be reckoned with for delivering both quality and quantity in its software.
Expanding the Game Beyond the Switch
With both Breath of the Wild and the Nintendo Switch releasing alongside one another, it’s an oddity to see that the game has sold more than the hardware.
Don’t you need the console to play the game?
This is where the marketability of Breath of the Wild stood out. Between both the new Switch version and the Wii U version, the game sat at over 925k copies sold in the month of March. With the issues that the Wii U still suffers from in both player experience and critic review, the game was so well received it was still finding its way into the hands of gamers who owned one or both of the consoles as well as selling multiple copies for those who wanted the collectors and standard edition.
With its success, Breath of the Wild was the best thing the Nintendo Switch could have released with. From the near perfect praise this new adventure of Link, one can expect the formula to continue in the future as the Switch moves onwards and upwards.
