So, as you may have noticied, Zelda games may be starting to become cross gen titles. First it was Twilight Princess, now we have a strong possibility of Zelda HD being a cross gen title again.

Given that main Zelda titles are taking 5 years to develop, one would expect Zelda HD's successor to come in 2021 or something, but at that point Nintendo's next console would be 4 or even 5 years old, so it would be time for another machine to be released and maybe turn Zelda into a cross gen project again!

This just hit me lately as it's a bit sad for me. I wish every console could have their own mainline game during their prime, they deserve it.

What do you think guys?

I mean, assuming Zelda U isn't on NX as well, I don't think Nintendo intends to break tradition of having a Zelda game for every console.

After all, Zelda is a big game, and is the sole reason why a good handful of people even buy Nintendo consoles.

I think it's gona get it if NX sells enough units like 30-40M (Home Console of course)

I agree with you, I really wish they would release a brand new zelda for their consoles in the first two years at the most, so that it could take advantage of the hardware it was planned for...and because I hate waiting for more zelda. I'm very impatient for those.

I hope their new, more business-minded CEO can see that a single 5 year epic Zelda that ties up their best team isn't worth it.

Nintendo will reuse a lot of the assets and engine of Zelda U. If not, they are going to take another five or six years for the next one.

Nintendo will reuse a lot of the assets and engine of Zelda U. If not, they are going to take another five or six years for the next one. And if they reuse the assets, they'll take less than three years, in time for the NX mid lifecycle.

Maybe ninty will reuse the wii u zelda engine and Smash out a mainline zelda game 2 years after zelda u

I can see Nintendo pulling a 'Majora's Mask' and pushing out a more experimental mainline Zelda game using the Zelda U engine. Also, if the NX truly is a platform that almost eliminates the concept of 'console generations', as some rumors state, then I can easily see the NX getting many of its own exclusive and unique Zelda games -- they may come out six years apart though.

Last Zelda game was exclusive.
Also with unified platform there is no need for 5 years development time, I expecting next Zelda to arrive around 2019, especially if Nintendo reused Zelda U assets like people already stated.