Nintendo trying to gauge demand for physical soundtracks outside of Japan

Nintendo hasn’t been too big on physical soundtracks for its games outside of Japan, but that could be changing in the future.

Earlier today, Nintendo revealed that it teamed up with Laced Records for a Zelda: Breath of the Wild vinyl soundtrack. This is really the first time we’ve seen something like this for the west. Depending on how it does, we could see more physical soundtracks from Nintendo outside of Japan.

Bill Trinen, Nintendo VP of Player & Product Experience, recently spoke about the company’s approach. Variety was told that “this is a little bit about us trying to gauge and understand what is the demand for physical soundtracks in the United States.”

Trinen told the outlet:

“In the Japanese market, CD is still a pretty prominent format there, and they do a lot of video game soundtracks on CD in Japan, and they’ve been doing that for years and years. Here in the U.S., we haven’t been releasing much in the way of physical soundtracks at all. And so partly, this is a little bit about us trying to gauge and understand what is the demand for physical soundtracks in the United States. Part of this is also simply an interest in trying to bring video game music to a broader audience, and it’s part of a few steps that we’ve taken.”

As for the Zelda: Breath of the Wild vinyl soundtrack release, we have much more information about it here.