Tears of the Kingdom was delayed for a year so that Nintendo could optimize the game

Producer Eiji Aonuma said in a recent interview that Nintendo decided to delay Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in March 2022 in order to polish and optimize the game.

Aonuma told The Washington Post that the game was practically ready in 2022, but they decided to push it back to 2023 “to make sure everything in the game was 100% up to their standards”.

The result was positive, as close to most recent AAA releases, Tears of the Kingdom has very few bugs and technical issues.

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.

— Gene Park (@GenePark) May 21, 2023

In the same interview, Aonuma said that the 13-minute Tears of the Kingdom gameplay video was the result of a last-minute decision at Nintendo, when the development team noticed a lack of enthusiasm after the reveal trailer.

The strategy paid off, with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom having sold over 10 million copies in just three days, becoming the fastest-selling game in franchise history, which has sold over 130 million copies. copies since its debut in 1986.

Via VGC