The second best Zelda game was made in a year. And I doubt the best Zelda game took them much longer considering the overworld was...

The worst (console) Zelda game ever also had the longest development time.

With the team spread thin, working on multiple platforms and projects... Development will be tough.

Nintendo EAD 3 released 2 Legend of Zelda titles in 2011; Ocarina 3D and Skyward Sword. Since the, we had a 2 Year wait for Wind Waker HD and Link Between Worlds, both in 2013. WWHD was remade from the ground up so it will have taken significant dev time, while LBW was an entirely new game. On top of that, they just released Majora's Mask 3D.

Since the Summer of 2011, EAD3 have released 5(!) Legend of Zelda titles at retail for Wii, 3DS and Wii U. Releasing so many titles on different platforms in a short period of time will put a strain on development. With the N64 nostalgia trip out of the way and the Gamecube Zelda titles now being available on Wii/Wii U, I think from this point onwards it will be balls to the wall development on brand new Legend of Zelda titles.

Expect Zelda U to release in 2016 and the next LoZ game to be out before 2020.

And timing is pretty not good, because apparently they release new Zelda before next gen coming out.

Example: Majora's Mask released in 2000 then Gamecube came out in 2001. Twilight Princess was supposedly only for Gamecube & scheduled to be released in 2005 then delayed later year for Wii Launch. Skyward Sword released in 2011 then guess what, Wii U came out in 2012.

I directed the question mostly to original console Zelda titles, plus the remakes shouldn't have taken so long, they said WWHD took them only 6 months. I'm just really confused on the way they have been treating Zelda lately.

Possible new Nintendo console in 2017 then?

They way the have worked the franchise this gen is disgusting. 3 remakes, a spin-off and one "original" handheld game that plays and looks almost the same as another one released 22 years before.

I hope next gen they do better and take the franchise off the hands of Aonuma. Give it back to Koizumi.

Hopefully 2018.

I wish we would get a new Zelda+engine and then using the same engine a second story like MM every 2or3 years.

I dont want to play 5 zelda games on consoles and then suddenly think "da fuck? I am 50years old?"

I think 2018 too

My exact thought, lifes too short to have a LoZ game every 5 years