'Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild' Sequel Pushed To 2023

The highly anticipated Legend of Zelda: Breath of the WIld sequel has been delayed to spring 2023, Nintendo said in an announcement video on Tuesday.

The game was initially announced in 2019 and has rarely been marketed or shown in trailers since. It had originally been planned to release at the end of this year. Despite being announced nearly three years ago, the game is yet to receive an official name.

“We have decided to extend our development time a bit and change the release to spring 2023,” series producer Eiji Aonuma said in the announcement. “For those of you who have been looking forward to release this year, we apologize.” There was no explanation as to why the game was being delayed.

According to Bloomberg, Nintendo's shares dropped by over 4% in Tokyo on Wednesday following the announcement. The gaming giant still has a major lineup of games that are set to release this year, such as the next generation of "Pokémon" games, titled "Violet and Scarlet", and "Splatoon 3", so the drop is expected to be merely momentary.

"The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" was released in 2017 with the launch of the Nintendo Switch and was immediately met with critical acclaim, with many citing it as one of the greatest games of all time.

"As previously announced, the adventure in this sequel will take place not just on the ground as in the previous game, but also in the skies above," Aonuma added. "In order to make this game's experience something special, the entire development team is continuing to work diligently on this game, so please wait a while longer."