June 08, 2025 marked 6 years since the launch of the Nintendo Switch alongsideThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, making the console now on-track to surpass the previous record holder for the longest Nintendo hardware life cycle – the NES. The upcoming release ofThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomcomes as Nintendo is at a crossroads, with their aging hardware still selling well and being home to some great exclusives but the future of the console somewhat uncertain. The position occupied byZelda: Tears of the Kingdomis similar to that of Naughty Dog’sThe Last of Usseries, whose releases have typically signaled the transition from one Sony hardware generation to the next.
The release ofThe Last of Usin 2013 came just 5 months before the launch of the PlayStation 4 and served as one of the last flagship console exclusives on the PS3. Naughty Dog and Sony would repeat this same strategy again in 2020, with the release ofThe Last of Us 2coming 5 months prior to the worldwide launch of the PlayStation 5. Thearrival of a secondLegend of Zeldatitleon a Nintendo console typically precludes an announcement of new hardware, indicatingTears of the Kingdommay be following inThe Last of Us' footsteps as a highly anticipated console exclusive that bookends a hardware generation.
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Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild Were Cross-Gen Zelda Releases
The development cycle forLegend of Zeldatitles is often lengthy, occasionally even coinciding with mid-development changes in each game’s direction or the intended hardware for targeted release shifting to a new generation. After originally being intended as a DLC expansion forBreath of the Wild,the scope and scale ofTears of the Kingdomgrew into a full-fledged sequel. This changing of the game’s size and transition into new standaloneZeldatitle also resulted in several delays forTears of the Kingdom. These delays could put the title in a similar position as two other entries in theZeldafranchise -Twilight PrincessandBreath of the Wild.
As both a launch game for the Wii and one of the last first-party Nintendo titles for the GameCube,Twilight Princess' lengthy development and place as the second Zelda title in a single hardware generation secured its position as the first cross-gen entry in the franchise.Breath of the Wildfollowed a similar patternin 2017, releasing as a launch game for the Nintendo Switch and as one of the last games for the WiiU. Both games were the secondZeldatitles in a hardware generation, meaning it’s not unreasonable to imagineTears of the Kingdomreleasing on the Nintendo Switch and then coming later to the Switch’s eventual successor.
Tears of the Kingdom Could Be a Fitting Swan Song to the Nintendo Switch
In a move similar toThe Last of Usand its sequel,Tears of the Kingdommay be the last high-profile first-party exclusive to come to current hardware. BothThe Last of UsandThe Last of Us 2pushed the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 to their limits, respectively.The preview build ofTears of the Kingdomused in a recent hands-on session for games media showed that the game is taxing on Nintendo’s aging hardware, with occasional frame rate drops and stuttering when completing complex actions in the game’s sandbox or engaging in combat with multiple foes.
In a move that echoes historic precedent set by previousZeldaentries as well as Sony’s release strategy forThe Last of Us,Tears of the Kingdomshould be the last first-party exclusive for the Nintendo Switch. Not only would this set up the opportunity for a more optimized version of the game to release on the Switch’s successor, it would position the nextMarioandMetroid Prime 4to release on Nintendo’s next console, making the most of the new hardware to provide gamers with the best experience possible.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomwill be released on June 16, 2025, for the Nintendo Switch.
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