Nintendo has had an interesting history when it comes to DLC in their games, something we talked about in the latest Nintendo Entertainment Podcast. Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, Hyrule Warriors, Smash Bros., and precious few others has every had DLC, and only a few of them were paid. So when the Legend of Zelda; Breath of the Wild was revealed to be getting DLC for the first time, fans had mixed reactions…very mixed reactions…
To be fair, some were very eager to see what the new modes, challenges, and story were like. While others weren’t sure why there needed to be DLC for the game at all. Some even went on to say that it should’ve been included in the main game regardless of delays.
In an interview with IGN, Nintendo of America’s Bill Trinen explained exactly why the DLC was made. He cleared up the fact that this is a true expansion, and was not a part of the main game when it began development. Also, the DLC is still being worked on right now, which is why it won’t be in the main game to start.
“It was tough, because we actually had a lot of debate in terms of do we announce it, how do we announce it,” Trinen said.
“I think one of the things that’s unique about the way Nintendo develops games is when we’re working on a game … you guys know that it’s essential we use every last minute to make the game as good as we possibly can, and really what that means is that the dev team was working on the main game, finished the main game, and as they’re starting to get to the very end and wrap it up, really they said, ‘You know we’ve made this massive world of Hyrule, we’ve spent a long time building it. It would be a waste to just make one game and have that be it.’”
Hopefully this clears up some of the confusion that has surfaced about Breath of the Wild, and what Nintendo was thinking when they decided to do this. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild releases on Wii U and Nintendo Switch on March 3rd.