The Legend of Zelda might be one of Nintendo's biggest series, but according to two of the company's former marketing leads, it was in "dire straits" before Breath of the Wild, which introduced a massive open-world overhaul that left the franchise's classic formula behind.
Last week saw the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's Switch 2 remake, which is already an enormous success with 5.2 million copies sold in its first four days. Notably, although it's a remake rather than an entirely new game, it shows there's still a huge appetite for the classic Zelda formula – something that Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang have been discussing in a new episode of their podcast below.
Ellis and Yang – former director of social media marketing and original content, and senior manager of creator relations and original content at Nintendo of America, respectively – have been chatting about whether the Ocarina of Time remake could open the door for more traditional Zelda games going forward, as opposed to the Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom-style open-world games which have served as the series' most major releases in the last nine years. While Yang would be interested in a game that combines the classic Zelda-style dungeons with the open-world format, Ellis would "like to see a modern attempt on a classic Zelda game" with that aspect left out entirely.
However, this brings him to another point – what he calls "revisionist history" of the series' releases. He calls out fans who've suggested that "the Zelda team ripped these [classic-style games] away from us at the peak of their popularity," prompting Yang to jump in: "That's ridiculous. This series was in dire straits. They were selling, like, nothing."
Ellis recalls: "I remember, I was going to the focus groups. It was a really dark moment of like, the feedback is 'the fan base is dwindling, this is not bringing in new players.'" According to him, Nintendo had "so much data" showing that "the interest in the audience was getting smaller and smaller" with every new game. As a result, he says, "They had to do something dramatic like that."
Obviously, Breath of the Wild was an enormous success – per Nintendo's data, as of the end of September, the Switch 1 version had sold a whopping 34.28 million copies, with its sequel Tears of the Kingdom coming in with 22.9 million. They're both considered some of the best Zelda games of all time, and for good reason.
But, as Ellis and Yang discuss, the Ocarina of Time remake has already proven that folks enjoy the more traditional experiences, too. I don't think we were ever at risk of Zelda going totally open world – even since Breath of the Wild's launch, we've seen the Link's Awakening remake and Echoes of Wisdom, as well as Skyward Sword's HD remaster, giving us new top-down and 3D releases, respectively.
Like Ellis, though, I'd be keen to see a brand new, classic-style 3D Zelda game at some point. After all, not counting remakes, remasters, and ports, the last one was technically 2011's Skyward Sword – it's fair to say we're due for something fresh.
