The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Sequel Rumored to be Planned for Release in 2020

Logan Moore November 12, 2019 11:41 AM EST

Nintendo is rumored to be aiming to release The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's follow-up at an undetermined time next year, though that could easily change.

Likely the most shocking reveal in all of 2019 was that Nintendo is currently working on a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. While there is still very little we know about this upcoming sequel other than what was shown in the reveal trailer earlier this year at E3 2019, it seems as though the much-anticipated game could be arriving sooner than perhaps many initially expected.

In a new series of tweets from Twitter user Sabi, it was said that Nintendo is currently planning internally to release the Breath of the Wild sequel next year in 2020. In the past, Sabi has leaked other information related to other upcoming games that later proved to be true, so they have a track record that indicates that this could be accurate.

This isn’t speculation, just current plans. — Sabi (@New_WabiSabi) November 12, 2019

That being said, as Sabi points out, this is supposedly just what Nintendo is currently aiming for inside the company and shouldn’t be considered a formal launch window whatsoever. Publishers almost always have internal release windows in mind throughout the development of a game, but those windows can shift drastically at any point depending on how development is progressing.

In the case of the Zelda franchise historically, it almost always seems like new games in the series end up arriving later rather than sooner. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is one of the only major entries in the series that released relatively soon after the game that preceded it in Ocarina of Time. Other entries such as Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, and Breath of the Wild seemed to be continually delayed or pushed back further than was originally planned by Nintendo and the same could happen this time as well.

Still, it is worth noting that the turnaround on this Breath of the Wild sequel could be much faster for a variety of reasons. Given the fact that Nintendo is developing the sequel within the same engine as the original Breath of the Wild, much of the legwork that often takes so long in game development has already been largely completed. As such, a three-year gap between the original BotW and its upcoming sequel doesn’t seem necessarily out of the question.

As of now, all we know is that Nintendo is working on this Breath of the Wild sequel for Switch with no public release window having been given. Hopefully, we’ll start to hear more about the project in the coming months.