Summary
Nintendo might not end up making any DLC forThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, as recently suggested by Eiji Aonuma, the series' long-time producer. His insight into the company’s future plans for the hit game—or lack thereof—also serve to shed a bit more light on howTears of the Kingdomeven came to be, and how that relates to Nintendo’s reluctance to keep revisiting its latest rendition of Hyrule.
September 12 will mark the four-month anniversary of the newestZeldagame, which many fans assumed will receive post-launch content. Nintendo already set a precedent for such a move by treatingBreath of the Wildto a well-received two-part Expansion Pass, so the notion ofTears of the Kingdomfollowing suit with DLC of its ownseemed like another golden opportunity for the company.
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Yet the gaming giant doesn’t appear to share that perspective, with Aonuma suggesting as much in a recent interview with Famitsu. Asked aboutthe possibilities forTears of the KingdomDLCor a full-fledged sequel, the industry veteran clarified that the developer currently has “no plans to release additional content” for the hit game. TheZeldateam also isn’t eager to revisit the setting of the last two mainline installments, with Aonuma positing that the developers already did everything they could to make the latest version of Hyrule as fun as possible, according to a machine translation of his comments.
The producer did concede that a third game in the same setting isn’t completely outside the realm of possibility if his team were to come up with good enough reasons to tackle yet another direct sequel. After all, that is precisely howTears of the Kingdomcame to be, the developer said. No matter what ends up happening, Aonuma concluded that the next installment in theZeldaseries will be “a completely new” experience.
Tears of the Kingdomdirector Hidemaro Fujibayashi also participated in the interview, but without offering much insight into Nintendo’s future plans for the series, having merely stated that he doesn’t know what his next project is going to be. TheTears of the Kingdomdirector did hint at a newZeldagameback in May, suggesting that he already has some ideas for another entry in the long-running franchise, but has yet to even share them with Aonuma.
In the meantime, this newly surfaced insight is a pretty strong indication that the latestZeldagame won’t be treated to any post-launch content. While Nintendo could always have a change of heart, single-player games that receive DLC years after hitting the market are exceedingly rare. Then again, Nintendo has always been unbeholden to such industry trends, as most recently underlined by the surprise announcement ofMario Kart 8 Deluxe’sBooster Course Passwhich arrived half a decade into the game’s release.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomis available now on Nintendo Switch.
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