The Nintendo Switch price or release date may not be officially revealed yet but that didn't stop Nintendo from showing off The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild late last year.
Nonetheless, several sources have claimed that the long-awaited title will not be available due to localisation issues. To take the place of Zelda, is Mario. The game seen during the Switch's reveal trailer will be a day one title “in all territories” according to LetsPlayVideoGames.
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Now, Eurogamer claims that the new Zelda game will be available at the launch of the Nintendo Switch but for the US and Japan. Europe will get it later.
“Multiple sources close to Nintendo have now told Eurogamer that, at the end of last year, Japan finalised its plans and had a change of heart: Switch needed the strongest possible launch lineup. In short, Zelda will release in March in North America and Japan. Zelda's launch timing in Europe is still unclear,” writes Eurogamer's Tom Phillips.
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He claims that Nintendo of Europe will be impacted the most from this as it had “previously pushed for as long a period of testing and localisation as could be allowed and had been working to the proposed schedule of a global launch after the Switch itself.”
Furthermore, the report states that Nintendo Japan wanted the game to be available at launch for the Nintendo Switch and was uncomfortable to wait. We'd speculate that this would be due to how long-winded its development cycle has been, Nintendo would want the Switch to have the strongest possible reception with a Zelda game.
In addition to this, it appears that this was finalised “by committee at the end of last year.”
This could have several ramifications. For one, it could allude to a console that is region-locked in order to avoid Europeans importing the game from Japan or the US. Secondly it means that Europe misses out on a game that's been heavily anticipated since it was revealed.
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