No it isn't. It's not even their first current gen open world game; Xenoblade Chronicles X came out over a year and a half ago.

Guess I'll have to delay my purchase.

Wow, 3D Mario at launch? That's dope, man.

I totally disagree with you there. I think they do owe a little bit of respect to Wii U buyers. And I'm still trying to understand how having Wii U owners to play the game first would be punishing the Switch early adopters.

The developers of Halo, Killzone, Uncharted, Battlefield already had experience in HD development and you're comparing the development of a bunch of linear shooters to the development of the first HD open world game of the Zelda team. Dark Souls 3 was handled by a separate team to Bloodborne and both titles were developed simultaneously, that's why DSIII came out only one year later to Bloodborne. Infamous just doesn't have the same scope as the new Zelda and its developer already had experience in HD development. 4 years for The Witcher III is not much less than 5 years for Zelda.

Heck yes! Youtubers are starting to spread the speculation as another delay (when we know it is not technically). Rants are here too.

I hope this reach Nintendo HQ asap and they see a dark future if Zelda miss March.

Hmm. I guess it is true then. If it really is because of localization issues, that's certainly a ridiculous reason for the delay, and potentially a heavy blow for Switch's launch.

They were the first games from their developers on new hardware, so they had to contend with a generational leap. Nintendo doesn't get to use the "new to HD" excuse, they've been working on HD hardware for 5 years now. Monolith Soft are even working on BotW, and they've already made Xenoblade Chronicles X, which was both HD and open world. And 4 years for Witcher 3 is significantly less than the 5 and half or more Zelda's looking at.

There's really no excuse, the Zelda team have just been terrible in their handling of this game. Almost any other major developer and publisher would've had it done by now, but because it's Nintendo, fans defend their mismanagement.

Jesus, the comment sections are destroying Nintendo. It's like a big part of the positive buzz the Switch got is going to trash as many loyal fans are going to delay their purchase. Like I said, Mario may have a broader appeal, but won't never generate the same hype as Zelda and the impulse to buy new hardware to play.