Nintendo Has Released 8 Zelda Games Since Announcing Zelda for Wii U

[curl-6]

Luke888 said:

curl-6 said:

3 years is acceptable. 4 is just barely acceptable. 5 is just too long.

Countless other developers, from DICE, to Naughty Dog, to From Software, to 343i have shown it is possible to output big budget games within a 3-4 year cycle.

Nintendo is no longer new to HD, they haven't been for years now, and they have a wealth of knowledge and experience in open world games on hand in the form of Monolith Soft, who have assisted with Zelda as far back as Skyward Sword.

There's no valid excuse for a production cycle this drawn out. NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, and Wii all had a proper Zelda in their first two years. Nintendo cannot afford to be this lax with one of their premier franchises.

The fact is that only the teams that worked on HD projects are now used to HD development, The Zelda team, while Nintendo published a lot of HD titles in the last few years, still hasn't released an HD game of their own...

The Zelda team are not an isolated unit living on a deserted island, cut off from the rest of the company. They have access to all the tools and procedures that the rest of Nintendo's studios have developed to deal with HD development. Aonuma himself has worked on several HD titles by now, as would have many other members of the development team. 

The "first HD game" excuse doesn't fly. Nintendo have been working with HD technology for a good 5 years now, and every breakthrough and lesson learned by those who pioneered it with the likes of Nintendoland, New Super Mario Bros U, Pikmin 3, 3D World, etc, have been shared with their entire development force, including the Zelda team.