Why do Zelda Console games take 5 years to develop.... ?

[TK14]

bigtakilla said:

Miyamotoo said:

Nintendo official numbers till 31. march:

-5.11mil: Mario Kart 8

-4.10mil: Super Mario 3D World

-4.81mil: New Super Mario Bros U

-4.68mil: Nintendo Land

-3.65mil: Super Smash Bros for WiiU

-2.25mil: New Super Luigi U

-1.55mil: Wii Party U

-1.52mil: Zelda WW HD

Okay, a remake only sold 1.5 mil as a launch title. You can use that, but I don't think it's very indicative to what a new LoZ with 10+ million fan base will pull. And remember, it pulled that much with less than 3 million install base if I'm not mistaken. It's actually pretty impressive.

WWHD came out 11 months after launch...not really a launch title. And Wii U was probably around 4-5 million by that point if I remember.

I'm not saying Zelda U couldn't do a respectable 3-4 million or more, but I just think Nintendo may be worried about investing so much $$ into an open-world, HD Zelda game (previously, Skyward Sword was their most expensive game to make, and because of its late release after Wii was dead, it didn't sell as well as they wanted it to) and then not getting a healthy profit return on it because of Wii U's puny install base. They will no doubt think of Twilight Princess, how it sold incredibly well on the new console and still a decent amount on the low install-base of the GameCube, AND helped sell the Wii at launch because a new-Zelda launch title is a HUGE deal. So if they dual-release on NX, they increase the sales/profits of Zelda U, as well as guarantee a strong NX launch (if its even a console and not a handheld that wouldn't be able to handle Zelda U anyway), which means a lot less risk after investing so much into the development of Zelda U.