Breath Of The Wild 2 Delay Has Slashed Nintendo's Stock Price

The writing was already on the wall, but now, we know The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 is one of 2022's big delays. Breath of the Wild 2 is joining Warner Bros. Montreal's Gotham Knights in that great gaming graveyard of this year. Although fans seem to be okay with the delay (for now), it turns out investors feel differently and Nintendo's stock price has taken a dive.

Back in 2017, the original Breath of the Wild launched as one of the Switch's flagship titles - delivering the biggest Zelda game ever. Going further into the lore of Hyrule than ever before, Breath of the Wild takes place at the end of the story and finally unites the timelines after Ocarina of Time split the Zeldaverse wide open. 

What's Going On With Breath Of The Wild 2?

According to Reuters, Breath of the Wild 2's delay has wiped 6% off the Nintendo stock price. Importantly, the slump comes off the back of an impressive 25% rise year-to-date. The site says this "shakes off" worries that the Switch has slumped, with an impressive year being backed up by strong sales for Pokemon Legends: Arceus and the recent release of Kirby and the Forgotten Land. 

"If there's a year Nintendo can afford to push Zelda out of, it's this year," said Serkan Toto, founder of the Kantan Games consultancy. He added, "The fiscal year hasn't even started yet and they have spread out all of these potential blockbuster titles." At the time of writing, Breath of the Wild is the fourth best-selling Switch game and has an impressive 25.8 million copies sold. Even with a delay, its sequel could soar past this. Also, despite a 6% stock drop, Nintendo is still in a solid position. 

Nintendo's first-party games have made up 84% of the company's software sales in the third quarter ended December, while the Switch has an install base of 100 million units and over 750 million software units sold. Looking at the bigger picture, Breath of the Wild 2 would've launched in a year that was packed with titles including Elden Ring, God of War Ragnarok, and Hogwarts Legacy. It might be for the best that it's (hopefully) clear to take the crown next year. 

What Else Do We Know About Breath Of The Wild 2?

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Despite being announced at E3 2019 by a teaser trailer, it's almost three years later and we still know literally nothing about Breath of the Wild 2. Last year's E3 gave us a full-blown trailer that teased a dark story in the vein of the N64 games, which was further backed up by comparisons to 2000's fan-favourite Majora's Mask. More recently, a potential title tease claims the game could be called Breath of Duality. 

If Breath of the Wild 2 is called Breath of Duality, it leans into several fan theories. As well as some thinking the trailer has actually been showing us Ganon before he turned bad (instead of Link), others think we'll be able to fully play as Princess Zelda. Whatever is going on, Nintendo has a little longer to tease us all - without the constraints of a 2022 release date. As long as we don't end up in another Cyberpunk situation of multiple delays, we say let Breath of the Wild 2 brew for a little longer.