
Following the announcement that the company is pushing back the launch of the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 from its previous '2022' release window to 'Spring 2023', Nintendo shares dropped 6% in Tokyo trading yesterday.
As reported by Reuters, the slump comes after a 25% year-to-date climb, with Switch still selling strongly thanks to its strong software lineup and steady influx of new, well-received titles like Pokémon Legends: Arceus in January and, more recently, Kirby and the Forgotten Land.

Of course, delays and Zelda games go hand-in-hand, and through the news is disappointing to fans, it's certainly not unexpected. "In order to make the game's experience something special, the entire development team is continuing to work diligently on this game, so please wait a while longer" said series boss Eiji Aonuma in a 'Launch Timing Update' video posted to social channels on 29th March.
The recent announcement of the upcoming Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, which is scheduled for a late 2022 release, means that Nintendo has another huge franchise entry lined up for launch over the lucrative holiday season, and with the continued strong sales of evergreen titles — plus big hitters like Splatoon 3 and Bayonetta 3 also scheduled for this year — the company's 2022 lineup is looking strong even without BOTW2.
There are sure to be unannounced games in the works, too, and it seems that Zelda fans are generally understanding about the delay.
- Further reading: Zelda: Breath Of The Wild 2: Everything We Know So Far
[source reuters.com]
Comments 80
In order to fix this, they have to show a new trailer for Metroid Prime 4 and we are all good
End of the fiscal year end in a couple of days, so it was interesting decision to release this info then.
We are badly needing a new Mario or DK 2d or 3d platform game from Nintendo in house AAA.
It’s been like 5 years since Mario Odyssey.
I’m not including ports and remasters.
Bowers Fury was a nice little add on.
my personal happiness slumped by 6% too..
Surprised to not see Xenoblade 3 mentioned in the article.
But to be fair this year is well packed of releases, enough that it can be hard to remember all of them (totally forgot about splatoon 3 personally).
No wonder Nintendo thought they could afford to delay and polish the next zelda a bit more and kinda weird to see the shares fall with such a chain of Nintendo titles releasing all along this fiscal year.
Yes, let's conveniently ignore the fact that the price is still higher than a week ago, and higher than a month ago and higher than 6 months ago...
@BakaKnight The year's already packed and they haven't even finished announcing the games in the latter half of the year.
@Dezzy70 I'm sure Nintendo has been working on a new 3d Mario. 5+ years seems like a long time in between 3D Mario releases, though.
as always, thank you for the share discount panic sellers!
Weird that it affected the shares at all, considering that it's only a 3 month delay which is negligible. 3 months fly past so quickly that it really won't affect much of anything. The only reason I imagine this could affect value is because it won't be out for the holiday season to gain the most traction, but I imagine Nintendo has plenty lined up for that anyways.
I honestly would like them to announce some weirder projects for the latter part of this year and maybe one more bigger game like Mario or another adventure-type game of some sort. I think after Elden Ring I'm a little worn out with the open world formula and would like them to focus on making the game a lot more interesting and unique.
It would suprise me if it's released in spring 2023, my guess would be E3 2023.
Activision, EA, Microsoft are examples os companies that do every single decision based on stock prices.
That's why we have games as a service, microtransactions and game subscriptions so hard on those companies. So I hope Nintendo keeps not caring about stocks as much as those companies do.
it'll be out just in time for the launch of the Swiich
@Varkster "considering that it's only a 3 month delay which is negligible."
Where is that coming from? All we know it is delayed from 2022 in general to Spring 2023 which goes until June 2023
They need another big 1st party title
Man I should start investing in Nintendo shareholders don't know anything and are quick to buy and sell in masses
Pff 6% is what I lose or win in 10 mins on the crypto market. Nintendo will recover from this “huge” loss.
@roboshort
October 2017 Mario Odyssey released on Switch
Will be 5 years this October 2022.
Just for reference Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 have a 3 year gap from releasing.
Come on Nintendo wake up.
i'm so glad it's been delayed. the number of great games coming out this year was too many so now i can finally play em without worrying about losing all my time to botw 2, plus it shows that they're trying to make this a worthy sequel and they wanna absolutely cram it full of content, if anything this has got me more excited! roll on 2023!
The average, everyday investor doesn't understand Nintendo as well as us...moving on.
Nintendo's share price is just plain stupid. It should be double its current value - as a minimum. Wii era price versus Switch era is crazy... and I'd argue Switch is far stronger as the handheld play far outweighs Wii's motion control usp.
@Dezzy70 The Galaxy games were sub-HD and had a smaller scale than Odyssey. Development takes way longer nowadays. The same team also made Bowser's Fury and ported 3D World. It might be that they aren't making Odyssey 2, where they could have reused a ton of assets.
Why would people sell their shares because of this announcement? That's stupid.
@mariomaster96 Yes agreed - no idea why people are passing it off as just a 3 month delay. BotW2 was always 2022 - with an E3 blow out most likely, the release window was always likely to be September-November.
December doesn't get big game releases.
Spring 2023 is March to June.
September 2022 to June 2023 is a 9 month delay.
November 2022 to March 2023 is a 4 month delay.
It's between 4 and 9 months.
@BTB20
You said it right, they have the game engine and most of the assets. They could have done it by now if they had wished.
@NinChocolate Only 6%, I wish :///
On Topic, good. There's one issue in particular that I'd wanna call Nintendo out on: When they merged their console and handheld business, part of the promise was that it would free up capacities and allow them to release more steadily. 5 years later that really hasn't happened. It probably did work out in terms of future proofing (my guess is they're hard at work on the Switch successor's launch lineup), but for the time being, on Switch, no.
Unlikely to be much of a relevant factor really, Nintendo's recent share price development considered.
@Dezzy70 Honestly, I don't think a new 3D Mario is coming this console generation, if only because that makes too much sense foe Nintendo to do it. Honestly, if we see any mainline Mario this year, I predict it will be a completely new version of Mario 3D All Stars, now with the full remakes/remasters that were originally leaked. It turns out that Nintendo took down 3D All Stars originally because they thought it would cannibalize the sales of this new version, and they wanted to give it a couple of years afterwards to make sure that people would be willing to buy it a second time. Mario 35 still stays dead, though. This feels just dumb enough to me to be the actual reality, and wouldn't conflict with anything else that's happened so far. Plus, we do still have the Odyssey team DK rumors.
That’s okay. There’s other stuff to play
@mariomaster96 By the same logic the original release date could have been end of December, since we never knew the initial release date either, and I highly doubt the stock investors which are the topic at hand for this article knew the release date either.
I would say that 3 months is a good enough estimate with that in mind, if we're going all the way up until June then it's 4 months so still quite a small difference.
Obviously I didn't know the prior release date neither do I know the next release date but it's a simple logical guess especially judging by the release frames for big Nintendo games in the past. Anybody who expected this game any sooner than winter at the end of the year were lying to themselves. Look at the amount of footage we have seen so far. I'm sure we will get a big showing for it at this year's E3 but honestly they would have been promoting it all year up til release date. It's their biggest game in the pipeline right now bar none.
Nintendo is the definition of a value stock: huge product portfolio of things people want and can't get elsewhere combined with capacity to innovate, massive cash reserves, long history with a proven ability to survive through hard times and a 2.6% dividend. Shares go up and down but Nintendo is one to buy and hold.
(Disclosure: I'm a Nintendo shareholder myself. If you hadn't guessed.)
@BTB20 I believe NST handled the 3D World port not EPD. Though I think Bowser's Fury was a joint effort between EPD and 1UP.
@nocdaes “December doesn't get big game releases.”
Wind Waker says “hi”, as do Spirit Tracks, Mario Karts 64 and 7, and Smash Bros Ultimate.
Though yeah, they’re the minority. November was the most likely target, especially for Zelda (6 of the core titles, 11 counting remakes and spin-offs, all launched in November).
Still no word on Metroid Prime 4 or trilogy either. How about a release date for Advance Wars? What about other Zelda game ports to tide us over with it being its anniversary and all?
@BakaKnight
"kinda weird to see the shares fall with such a chain of Nintendo titles releasing all along this fiscal year."
that's just another proof amongst many others, despite anything traders/etc might claim to you, that the stock market is ruled less by long term cold logic and planning and more by emotions and short term knee jerk and guts reaction from people with little involvement in the actual industries(not just gaming) they are playing stock market roulette on.
@BTB20 Yep, Galaxy 3 will take a bit longer...
Good that ls what you get when you fool people with a fake 2022 release
@Dezzy70 Wake up to what? Great games don't just make themselves. I'd rather Nintendo take every last extra minute they need to make their games magical then to release half finished games just to appease shareholders. Nintendo loves their own games, their shareholders love money.
@nocdaes Well. Smash was December.
@NintendoWife Well, it was more a reactive move to the fact HD games were taking so much longer to make. That's the issue... merging teams together like Nintendo has only just about helped with the fact games were taking extra time to make. It didn't allow for a stronger cadence of release.
This is the challenge for Nintendo going forwards.
@nkarafo,
Doubt it, Metroid prime has never been a big seller.
If only Nintendo could just release Twilight Princess and Windwaker now this year
@Dringo It seems so, yes.
I felt that, that really a bummer 😓
@Rosalinho yes, but it kinda annoying, they so much cash just lying around, I want to see them use it to expand more often….
Shares dropped by 6% cuz of the delay of BoTW2?? Jeez. People really need to get over it. It's better that it gets pushed to 2023.
Original BOTW changed the gaming landscape and blew people away winning constant awards and getting high acclaim praises all over the world! When BOTW 2 comes out, people will forget about their disappointment and love the game. Argh.
At least we won't hear any stories of horrible treatment and crunching for a change...or will we?
Oh no guess that's it for Nintendo. They aren't releasing a game when they said they would so they'll be going out of business. All is lost! All is lost!
Geeze what a bunch of babies. Just like that spoiled brat girl from Willy Wonka. Don't care how i want it now! If I don't get the things i am after I'm going to scream!
Would you rather have it great or fast and fugged up? Delays are disappointing yes but more often than not they are necessary. Suck it up buttercup.
It'll go up again. The stock market is always a reactionary rollercoaster. Even a sneeze in a quiet corner can make it move.
This would not have happen if Nintendo announce the delay and had other games to make up for it such as a Wind Waker HD or Twilight Princess HD port or both. They just announced the delay with nothing to make up for it which disappoint the investors. Imagine if the Metroid Prime 4 delay got announced but with no reveal of a Metroid Dread last year, it would be even dire. Nintendo needs to fix this with some Zelda ports or a Zelda collection soon. Delay the triple A title all you want but don't disappoint your investors with nothing to make up for it especially when that franchise is the reason why they invest in your share in the first place.
In the mean while, I'll love if they make a few more remakes of old 2D Zelda games as they did with Links awakening.
Or just an HD Link Between Worlds!
@Truegamer79 @WindWakerLink Stocks are about investors, not gamers. If the game got postponed, it means they are not earning the amount of money they were planning to earn this year....
Yikes! Investors really cut out whenever no BOTW 2, especially after directs (we see the same stock drops then).
@NintendoWife What do you mean by released more steadily. Do you mean that Switch should had gotten more games because of its hybrid nature? Had you seen the Switch library as of late, there's literally hundreds of games coming out every week unlike their past consoles where it would just come out every month or two instead.
I was really bummed about the delay news yesterday but the 6% drop seems kind of stupid. What if they delayed it to release in March on the Switch 2 or Switch Pro? Everyone who sold their shares yesterday will be paying more to get back in. Also possible we get another game this holiday that sells well in it's place.
Yes it was big bad news, but I wouldn't have sold my stock over a delay.🤷
Definitely a tough pill to swallow.
@Specter_of-the_OLED Well but now you're talking about all games from all developers, including digital-only and indie which didn't exist back in the days. So of course that's an unprecedented number. But here we were talking about Nintendo-developed titles. Do check out the release timeline on the Zelda Wikipedia article, you'll find that there used to be Zelda games (official ones, not Cadence or HW) the likes of which we won't get anymore, due to the merger of console and handheld lines. Link Between Worlds, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks. And that there has never before been a 6 year gap between new entries.
Then when it comes out they'll begin to climb again.
@BTB20 The stock market can be extremely fickle. A single announcement can either raise or drop shares on a whim.
This is literally what happened when Nintendo announced Animal Crossing to be delayed to the beginning of 2020.
@sikthvash I wonder if there are tax implications and Nintendo knew this would lower the stock value — right before the end of the fiscal year.
@Dezzy70 The time between Galaxy 1 and 2 is the shortest timeframe between 3D Mario titles, so it's a bit unjust to list that as the only example.
Mario 64 to Sunshine was 6 years
Sunshine to Galaxy was 5 years
Galaxy 2 to Odyssey was 7 years
3D Mario games take quite a bit of time to make when they aren't just using the same assets as the previous game.
@mike_intv quite possible! They probably knew they would have to communicate this in the pending year end review to investors anyway. I'm sure they'll have a plan in place to drive the share price back up shortly. A Splatoon 3 focused Direct might help with that.
This exact kind of thing happened when ACNH was announced to be delayed and look what happened with that game. I don't think Nintendo will be sweating too hard about this.
@UsurperKing You forgot Mario 3d World in that time gap of Galaxy 2 and Odyssey.
@sikthvash take the hit now, still have a huge % climb.... Leaves more room to grow next year! (does it work like that? )
I do smell a direct is inbound with this. Better to bring the news now then get us hyped again!
@GinMiguel No, I just chose to omit it because it isn't in the same vein as the other 3D games where you're hunting stars/shines/moons while also accomplishing secondary objectives in open areas.
I love 3D World as a game, but it and 3D Land fall into a different category. They're more akin to the 2D Mario as level based games, not objective based and the levels are pretty short for the most part.
@BTB20 because short term it will hurt their revenue
But it is pretty stupid, it isn’t that big of a deal long term
@Ludovsky
Of course there are emotions and guts reactions on the stock market.
The point is, that those equalize each other out, making them irrelevant over long term.
This news over Nintendo losing 6% is a great example to use.
Something bad happened (major product delayed) therefore stock prices go down a bit (6% is really not much at all...).
But if you just look over a timespan that is a little longer, you will immediately notice how little that actually did.
Over the last week, Nintendo only lost 1.9%, which is essentially nothing and yes, this already includes the recent 6% drop.
If we look over the entire month, Nintendo has, all in all, gone up 3.2%, which is just very stable.
Point being: A sudden 6% drop like this doesn't even matter to any serious investor.
If there is a different reason, that could cause actual long term problems for the company, those would be much more interesting.
Hopefully all the old ports were worth it nintendo
Guess that's not surprising since this delay isn't exactly good news. Still, if Nintendo can get out two of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Bayonetta 3 and Pokemon Scarlet/Violet, or somehow manage to get all 3 out in 2022 that's still a heck of a Fall/Holiday lineup. Dare I say still better than the competition.
@UsurperKing
I get what you are saying
But the bigger gaps in release was because there where big changes and also new hardware.
Why I picked Galaxy 1 to 2 was because of same hardware and similar game design and assets.
So Mario Odyssey 1 to 2 could be a similar reflection.
Now Galaxy was 3 years, so I was thinking Odyssey being a bit more involved could be 5 years instead of Galaxy 3 years, so I allowed an additional 2 years, also it is same hardware both Switch.
I think I have reasonable in my assessment.
Nintendo's stock also took a hit when they announced that Animal Crossing New Horizons was being delayed from 2019 to March 2020 back in E3 2019.
They have a strong 2022 lineup even without BOTW2 so I doubt this will hurt them too much, but it still sucks to see.
Their stonks have been in a big dip for a while now...
@Dezzy70 3D Mario, 2D Mario, Mario Kart, top down Zelda...All of those are either due for a new entry or will be in 2023. Mario Kart is the only IP I'm convinced is being saved to launch whatever system is to follow up the Switch generation, especially with the Booster Course Pass schedule through 2023. I think if the next new 3D Mario game isn't shown off at E3, it will be a launch year title for the next generation if not a launch game. I think the final Nintendo Direct for this year will be a good indicator of if the next generation is coming in 2024.
im suprised how much that effected the stocks. it's really not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things
@rjejr yeah, but i doubt we're getting a console upgrade
@nowthisisepic "yeah, but i doubt we're getting a console upgrade"
I doubt it too, but I also doubted a Wii Mini colored Netflix red and bundled with Mario Kart Wii, their best online game, without any online in th econsole, and the 2DS tablet, which not only took the clam out of clamshell but took the 3D out of 3DS.
So whoever correctly predicted both the Wii Mini w/o internet and the 2DS, those are the only people I trust. And I don't think there is even a single 1 of those. It's called Nintendo Logic for a reason, there isn't any logic involved.
If any company was going to announce a 2 year DLC plan for their current console's best selling game, then launch a new console right smack dab in the middle of those 2 years, it's Nintendo. Who knows w/ them, they may even call it the Switch Pro, even though it's really the Switch 2 w/ a ton of exclusives, just for laughs. 🤷♂️
@rjejr we just cant know yet i guess
2023, that's when you'll see a new more powerful switch then. launch title written all over it.
I don't get these investors. Breath of the Wild wasn't released at Christmas time either, but from what I heard it did pretty well. 🤣 It's not like they announced its cancellation.
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