Zelda U is highly unlikely to release next year

[Asriel]

I genuinely don't know.

I mean, on the one hand, Iwata and the Zelda team recognise that Skyward Sword's protracted development time wasn't a good thing, which led to Iwata stating that the next home console Zelda should be ready within three years, pointing to 2014 as a possible release time. The last time Nintendo's home console business was under this amount of pressure, Iwata made the decision to push Wind Waker out in time for the year-end holiday season in Japan. Wii u is under far more pressure than any home console Nintendo have ever released. While I don't think it's an existential threat to Nintendo, they're certainly under an unprecedented amount of pressure to turn Wii U around, considering the strain on their resources it took to get 3DS going, the fumbled transition from a market leading, hugely successful generation into this one, and years of missed forecasts and lower than expected profits thanks to foreign exchange losses, price cuts etc. Finally, Aonuma has stated he would have liked to show something of Zelda U at E3 and Comic-con this year, but held off due to Wind Waker HD and ALBW.

To summarise: financial/market pressure on their home console business, protracted Skyward Sword development/relatively low sales figures, not unprecedented for Zelda to be rushed to market by Iwata during tough times, desire to release home console Zelda titles on a faster schedule. These factors point to a 2014 release.

But, Nintendo's manpower has been stretched thin adjusting to the demands of high definition development. Even with larger teams and more studios than a decade ago, Nintendo's expansion has not kept rate with the necessary increases in manpower that high definition development has demanded. Combined with this, Wii U projects were put on hold in order to push 3DS titles to markets sooner to rescue that system, meaning that any development of Zelda U may have been disrupted. ALBW's development was disrupted by the need to push people onto Wii U launch projects, so it's not without question Zelda U would have been disrupted. We've also only just seen the release of Wind Waker HD and a new portable Zelda, further suggesting that development of Zelda Wii U has been disrupted. And, despite Aonuma's comments that he wished to show something of Zelda U this year, Nintendo expressed similar desires in 2009--only to showcase a single piece of concept art from their latest Zelda title. Finally, despite the desire to help Wii U by pumping out big games, rushing Zelda to market to the point that the brand is damaged would be disastrous for Nintendo. They will survive the relative failure of Wii U, and the loss of the Wii brand--but only thanks to high quality software brands like Zelda, that the company can rely on in times of trouble. Rushing Zelda out to reverse or improve the fortunes of Wii U may provide short term benefit at the expense of long term damage to Zelda, and this kind of action is against Iwata and the current management's philosophy of safeguarding the long-term future of Nintendo.

To summarise: demands of HD development stretch manpower, exacerbated by the need to ramp up 3DS software development/Wii U launch title development, recent release of a Zelda remake and new portable title, track record of Zelda delays/being further away from release than desired, Iwata/Nintendo management's responsibility to safeguard Zelda brand in order to protect Nintendo's long term future may over-ride the need to improve Wii U's performance. These factors suggest a post 2014 release date.

I am undecided between these view points...