Aonuma explains why Nintendo doesn’t take an annualization approach with Zelda
Posted on October 16, 2013 by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News
Big franchises like Call of Duty tend to see new releases each year. But in the case of Zelda, it usually takes Nintendo quite a long time to develop a new entry.
Majora’s Mask was intended to be the original exception. Following Ocarina of Time in November 1998, Nintendo had wanted to get the N64 sequel out the door just a year later.
Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma told Shacknews that Miyamoto came up with the idea:
“This was an idea that came from Mr. Miyamoto. The challenge he gave to me: to try and make a sequel to Ocarina of Time in just one year.”
“Ocarina of Time was the first 3D Zelda game. When you make a 3D game, you have all these 3D models. But in a 2D game, you’re drawing all these 2D images. Even if you wanted to make another game right away, if the background is different, you actually end up having to re-draw everything. But in a 3D game, you can put those 3D models in different backgrounds and animate them. So Mr. Miyamoto thought ‘well, actually shouldn’t this make it easier for us to make a sequel?'”
As far as why we don’t see core Zelda titles on an annual basis, Aonuma said:
“I think before, we did maybe try to make Zelda games come out faster. But there’s so much expected of Zelda titles now, so you have to reach a certain level of quality, so that’s why we started to take a bit more time now.
“I don’t think it’s necessary that development needs to be longer. But to reach a certain level of quality, there’s just a certain amount of time that’s needed. Obviously, the company is telling me that I need to put games out as quickly as possible.”
“It’s not like we feel like we have a duty to get one out a year. Right now, we’re able to split ourselves between the handheld and console games and have two teams. I think we’re pretty efficient in getting games out on a regular interval.”
