Won't 2011-2016 will be 7 COD games, 1 per year plus Declassified?

If so, Zelda is more milked than COD.

If you're going to count iOS games, may as well count Hyrule Warriors Legends and eShop re-releases of the older Zelda games too.

I'm talking about retail releases.

But Zelda has become more than a yearly thing; by year's end, it'll have had 9 retail releases in 6 years. It's being churned out with a wanton abandon that would see other publishers get widely ridiculed, yet Nintendo seems to be getting a free pass.

Well, unlike COD or Assassins Creed, you can actually tell the difference between all those Zelda games you mentioned. Not to mention that you never hear most people who play Zelda say they're sick of Zelda. People get sick of COD and Assassins Creed but not Zelda. This is partly because, there are a lot of games on the market that play like COD. There are a lot of games out there that play like Assassins Creed. There aren't too many Zelda clones out there. Zelda is that type adventure game that you don't see very often anymore which is why Nintendo has been able to get away with releasing all of these games.

As far as waiting for Zelda U is concerned, some claim that delaying games makes a company look bad. Well, so does releasing them too early. Besides, anyone who followed Nintendo and Rare during the N64 days would know that Nintendo games getting delayed were both common and expected. Being secretive about everytihng is another Nintendo trait. I don't even get mad at Nintendo for this stuff. There are plaenty of other reasons to be mad at them but when they refuse to talk about something or announce that they're dealying a game for quality reasons, I pretty much expect it these days.

I think Nintendo realizes if Zelda Wii U isn't the next Zelda game released after TPHD and HWL then they will get a lot of hate, they need to release it this year.

Yes but OOT3D/MM3D/WWHD/TPHD are all remakes/remasters so they don't count as new games, Hyrule Warriros and Triforce Heroes are also spin offs and nothing like the regular Zelda games, the only new Zelda that released between Skyward Sword and Zelda Wii U that is a mainline game is ALBW.

The last 3D Zelda we got was Skyward Sword which released in 2011, so that's 5 years between 3D Zelda's.

It is differernt from AC and COD where a new mainline game comes out every year, obviously thankfully this year Ubisoft is taking a break from releasing a new AC.

Spamming a series is still inherently dangerous. It can dilute your brand and lead to franchise exhaustion. Zelda may not be at that point yet, but if they keep up like this, it will eventually happen.

And personally I don't think a prevalence of bad behaviour makes it acceptable. Just because I expect it doesn't mean it's not annoying.

Simple answer; don't take so long between mainline entries.

I don't have a problem with filling the gaps with side projects like Hyrule Warriors of Ocarina 3D, in theory. It's just the sheer quantity of Zelda releases in the last 5 years that strikes me as excessive and unsustainable.

Zelda U was already announced and I can't see how the announcement of a different Zelda could possibly displease you.