Popular game title Legend of Zelda Wii U, the last hope for Nintendo's ailing Wii U game console, is reported to be officially coming in 2016, pushing back the original release date sometime this year.
Reginald "Reggie" Fils-Aimé, President and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, the North American division of the Japanese video game company Nintendo, told IGN that the Legend of Zelda Wii U was obviously absent during last month's E3 Convention 2015 was because the game was not yet ready for its public viewing.
Fils-Aime said Nintendo does not want to give the gaming public a misconception that the Legend of Zelda Wii U is ready for an early unveiling.
In last year's Game Awards Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto and producer Eiji Aonuma featured a gameplay demo with of Legend of Zelda Wii U but the footage did not show much beyond a basic concept.
However, in this year's game awards, Miyamoto and Aonuma provided glimpse of the vastness of the game by riding around on Epona. The two also marked locations on the map and allowed the public a view of the map on the gamepad.
Aonuma also hinted that the next installment of Zelda will have a multiplayer mode and will be "more than just a single-player experience."
"When I was talking back about making Zelda more than just a single-player experience? That's something you will see in the future, maybe next year," he added.
With local multiplayer powered by the combination of a television screen and the Wii U Gamepad already confirmed for utilization in Hyrule Warriors, the prospect of multiplayer incorporation in Zelda is intriguing. Zelda has not made a foray into synchronized multiplayer game play since Spirit Tracks for DS, the report said.
A separate report by Master Herald stated that Nintendo might release Legend of Zelda Wii U on other platforms, like PlayStation, Xbox or PCs. However, there is still no detail on the Nintendo NX, the report added.
The gaming community was taken by storm when Nintendo released the first trailer of The Legend Of Zelda Wii U at the E3 2014 with its beautiful graphics and androgynously-modeled Link, said Design&Trends. However, Nintendo has not provide much details about the development of the game except various speculations Legend of Zelda Wii U will feature large enemies and a number of choices in the quest mode.
The E3 2014 trailer for Zelda Wii U revealed the graphics style to be advanced cel-shading, similar to the cel-shading of The Wind Waker, only with more realistic and detailed textures, lighting, and models. Little else is known about the graphics, as the actual cinematic shown was extremely short and only four native-resolution screenshots were released. For the Nintendo Wii U, you will be getting the regular version of the game and not the 3D graphically enhanced version of the game.
However, Japanese game maker Nintendo has confirmed that the Legend of Zelda Wii U will be released sometime next year although there is no exact date yet.
The report added that Nintendo's Wii U is facing huge pressure because of declining sales. The game console sole only 10 million units since its release in 2012. The figure trails Sony's market-leading PlayStation 4 (PS4) which sold more than 22 million units even despite having a much later launch in 2013.
The Wii U is selling worse compared to Nintento's Gamecube but a little better than Sega's Dreamcast. The lack of enthusiasm over Dreamcast forced Sega to completely fold up its operations, the report added.
The Legend Of Zelda, to be released exclusively for Wii U is seen as the savior for the console, industry insiders say.
