Early last year, The Legend Of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma announced that the highly anticipated sequel to Breath Of The Wild would be delayed to 2023. This game would eventually launch as The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, to high praise from critics and players alike.

According to a recent interview with Aonuma published by The Washington Post, the team chose to announce a delay to give the game extra polish to meet their standards. This is credited as the reason why the game launched without any major bugs or glitches, despite the title’s complex physics.

“…in March 2022, Aonuma had to announce its delay, “to make sure that everything in the game was 100 percent to our standards,” he said…

Another issue that Aonuma discussed relates to the initial marketing for the game. When the game’s second trailer was released in February 2023, Aonuma felt that players “lacked enthusiasm” and “had not gotten their heads around the gameplay elements or where the fun might be,”. This led to the more detailed 13-minute showcase where Aonuma walked everyone through the basics of Tears Of The Kingdom‘s new mechanics, including the now beloved Ultrahand power.

These two major decisions on Aonuma’s part likely contributed to Tears Of The Kingdom‘s massive success, with the game selling over 10 million copies in its first three days on the market.

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