Aonuma explains why Nintendo doesn’t take an annualization approach with Zelda
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.”
