Wild, man!

Just exactly when is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild going to arrive? That's a question that will no doubt be answered properly next week when Nintendo shows off the Switch to the press and public, but for the time being reports appear to suggest that it will hit the March launch window of the new console - but not everywhere in the world.

Eurogamer has been speaking to sources close to Nintendo and has learned that while there were plans to hold the game back until later in the year, a decision was apparently made at the end of 2016 and Breath of the Wild will form part of the Switch's launch lineup - in Japan and North America, at least.

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In Europe - where the game will need to be localised into multiple languages - the story is less clear. According to Eurogamer's sources, the decision to push ahead with a March release regardless of how it would impact Europe was only made at the end of last year. In short, NCL wants the game on the shelves in its two key markets, irrespective of what Nintendo of Europe decides to do.

So where does this leave European Zelda fans? One scenario would be that Nintendo of Europe pushes ahead with the translation process - a tall order given that March is just around the corner - or perhaps ships the game in English and patches in the additional languages at a later date. While that might sound outlandish, Nintendo did exactly that with Xenoblade Chronicles X in North America, patching in the French and Spanish options January 2016, a full month after its initial December 2015 launch.

The third and perhaps least welcome option would be delaying the release of the game in Europe until later in the year, allowing time for it to be fully localised for all European territories.

Nintendo is expected to outline its Switch launch lineup next week. What do you think will happen in regards to Zelda: Breath of the Wild? Share your predictions with a comment.

[source eurogamer.net]