The Legend of Zelda turned 35 on Sunday, February 21, but Nintendo passed the commemoration without making much noise. If you’re a fan of the publisher’s great adventure series, you may find the silence disturbing. But if you look at the anniversary as marketing, Nintendo’s decisions make more sense.
When a business celebrates an anniversary, it is with the goal of selling more products. And the way Nintendo is going to maximize its return on these marketing efforts is to distribute it and let it breathe.
The first consideration when it comes to timing a Zelda anniversary is Mario. Nintendo’s 35th anniversary celebration for Super Mario continues. It’s unlikely that Nintendo wants celebrations for Zelda and Mario to overlap. It would get more out of each if it made a separation between the two events.
The company ends the Mario anniversary on March 31st.
In addition to Mario, Nintendo is also concerned about getting the best out of each new Zelda product from now on.
Skyward Sword is the first step on the Zelda 35th birthday trip
Even if Nintendo starts rolling out the party balloons and birthday cake for Zelda, you should not expect it all to come at once. It still markets. And Nintendo will want to put The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD at the forefront.
This is one of the biggest reasons why Nintendo did not talk about other Zelda outside of Skyward Sword HD in the latest Direct video event. The company does not want other Zelda games to draw attention to its efforts to bring Skyward Sword back.
Sure, it could release Wind Waker and Twilight Princess at the same time, but the company wants Zelda fans to all be focused on Skyward Sword.
Instead of creating a situation where other Zelda releases on Switch could cannibalize sales that could go to Skyward Sword, Nintendo will create a steady cadence of releases to celebrate the series. It starts with Skyward Sword HD in July, but we need to hear what comes soon after that in the summer.
Again, the key word here is marketing. Nintendo wants to create a story for Zelda fans that will lead them to spend the most money. It starts with Skyward Sword HD in July, continues with the likely ports of Wind Waker / Twilight Princess HD, and may eventually end with the launch of Breath of the Wild 2.
The idea is to create important moments that Zelda fans do not want to miss. And to take part in the first step of the festivities, you only need to drop $ 60 for a Wii remaster.
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