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Many would agree that Breath of the Wild is the toughest Zelda game in years. That’s something the development team accepted early on.

Last week, director Hidemaro Fujibayashi spoke about the game’s difficultly with The Verge. Nintendo observed that many players were falling off of Hyrule’s towers while development was ongoing, resulting in deaths. The team ended up making some tweaks, but in the end, they accepted the fact that many players would fall and die.

Fujibayashi said:

“When we saw that, we also didn’t see it as something negative. There’s actually kind of a fun to be had from falling and dying. You learn to be careful and to be cautious. And we felt that that gave a lot of players the emotional preparedness to take on the rest of the world. So we ultimately decided that we should let them die.”

Sales data is in for Switch in France. According to Le Figaro, the new system sold 105,000 units when it released last Friday.

Similar to the Americas, Switch had a record-breaking launch in France. It’s not only the best result ever for a new Nintendo console, but also the biggest launch for consoles as a whole.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was picked up by nearly all new Switch owners in France having sold 96,000 copies. Given that number, it’s an attach rate of over 91 percent. Breath of the Wild also sold 34,000 copies on Wii U.

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Nintendo has sent out an official notice about Switch’s performance in Europe. During the system’s launch weekend, it sold more than any other Nintendo hardware in history.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild also performed well. It’s the biggest-selling Nintendo launch title ever in Europe, outselling Wii Sports in first weekend sales.

Source: Nintendo PR

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Update (3/7): Famitsu now has an article up on its actual website. Between March 3 and March 5, Zelda: Breath of the Wild sold 193,060 units at retail with a 58 percent attach rate. Also, Famitsu’s website reports a figure of 330,637, so we’ll be using that one instead of the previously-reported 313,700.


Original (3/6): Data from Famitsu reveals that first week sales of Switch came in at 313,700 units in Japan. To compare, other notable console launches include the Wii at 371,900 units, Wii U at 308,600 units, and PlayStation 4 at 322,100 units.

By first week, that should mean Switch’s first three days on the market. Famitsu’s next reporting period is between February 27 and March 5, and Switch came out on March 3 – so that would account for sales from Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Earlier today, it was reported that Switch doubled up on Wii U in the UK by selling 80,000 units in its opening weekend. No numbers are out for North America, but the system had a record-breaking launch for Nintendo.

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The New York Times recently had the opportunity to interview Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. We’ll be seeing the publication’s full discussion soon, but reporter Nick Wingfield shared some information about Switch’s sales early.

Switch’s first 2-day sales in the Americas – meaning Friday and Saturday – were the best for any system in Nintendo history. The next closest was Wii, which launched during the holiday period.

We’re also hearing that Zelda: Breath of the Wild is now the best-selling standalone launch title (meaning not a bundled game) in Nintendo history. The game managed to beat out Super Mario for N64.

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The concept for Zelda: Breath of the Wild began with Shigeru Miyamoto and series producer Eiji Aonuma asking what would players would be able to do in the new game. Hidemaro Fujibayashi, who became the project’s director, responded by saying you could do everything.

Fujibayashi told Kotaku:

“But I had to sell it to them. How we’re going to make this happen. And I felt like the best way to convey this idea to them was to show them that you could climb walls.”

Work on Breath of the Wild began with a prototype. The team created a starting area with a small field and trees, along with rupees hidden throughout. Fujibayashi describes how Miyamoto played the demo:

The first teaser trailer is online for Away: Journey to the Unexpected. While no specific platforms are listed, we know that it’s bound for Switch thanks to the Nindies infographic sent out last week.

Here’s the video:


Away: Journey to the Unexpected is a Japanese-inspired, first-person game. The Next Penelope (also coming to Switch) creator Aurelien Regard is working on the project. More information should be shared tomorrow.

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Much has been made of syncing issues with Switch’s Joy-Con controllers, particularly with the left one. Spawn Wave looked into the situation with a pair of new videos.

Opening the left Joy-Con circuitry shows that the antennae used for Bluetooth is actually built into the board. Meanwhile, the right controller has an external wired antennae. Interference could be involved with the left Joy-Con resulting in connectivity problems.

Spawn Wave explains the situation towards the end of the first video below. In the second one, a wire is added inside to boost the Bluetooth signal, and the results are very successful.

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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s huge map is based on Kyoto, Japan. That’s according to director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, who revealed the information while speaking with The Verge.

Fujibayashi told the site:

“When I first started looking at this game, I had Link in an empty game field and I would just walk around and try to map out and get a feel for the distance and where landmarks should be. What helped me with this was my hometown, Kyoto. I took a map of Kyoto and overlaid it on the game world, and I tried to imagine going to places that I know in Kyoto. I’d think ‘It takes this much time to get from point A to point B, so how does that translate to the game?’ And that’s how we started mapping out the world in Breath of the Wild.”

Fujibayashi added that using Kyoto as a base was helpful during development since developers were familiar with the region:

Before the Switch version of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the game was planned to have some touch features on the Wii U GamePad. Ultimately, those ideas were scrapped. The GamePad simply tells players that they can tap on the controller to enable off-TV play.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi recently chatted with IGN about the decision to cut the game’s touch features on Wii U. Once Switch was brought in and tests were done, Nintendo “noticed looking back and forth between the GamePad and the screen actually took a little something away from this type of Zelda game.”

Fujibayashi’s full comments are below.


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