Released on May 12, Zelda Tears of the Kingdom is a game that has seen many postponements, and the reason each time mentioned concerns the need to refine the game in every corner. A classic discourse on the part of each publisher and studio as soon as a postponement of the calendar is mentioned, but in the case of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, the need to tweak the open world was for once true. In an interview with the Washington Post, producer Eiji Aonuma admits that the game had been ready for a year, since 2022, but that it was necessary to postpone the game for the gameplay mechanics to work perfectly. The development teams at Nintendo have therefore spent an entire year chiading the game’s physics engine, in particular because of the new powers conferred on Link, allowing him to create a whole lot of things, in an organic and coherent way. Obviously, spending a year refining a game is not given to just anyone, the studios losing a lot of money with each postponement of a few months, so imagine over a full year. But as Shigeru Miyamoto puts it so well: “A delayed game turns out to be good in the end, but a rushed game will remain bad forever”. A phrase to ponder, especially at a time of hasty releases and day one patches. For some, moreover, the philosophy “we ship first, we repair later” is still relevant…
Eiji Aonuma said when he announced in March 2022 a delay for Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, the game was pretty much complete.
The last year was spent on polish, making sure the wild physics of the game just work. https://t.co/jb2qlonWsO
— Gene Park (@GenePark) May 21, 2023