Nintendo: New Zelda on Wii before close of 2010

by Stevie Smith - Feb 26 2010, 12:22

Japanese gaming giant Nintendo may have appeased its more mainstream audience this week by officially dating both Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M for the Wii home console, but its list of upcoming software releases was sporting a sizable Zelda-shaped gap.

However, although a new Legend of Zelda game on the Wii isn’t destined to arrive before the close of 2010’s second quarter, Nintendo of America’s Cammie Dunaway has said Wii fans can expect to be playing a brand new Zelda adventure before the end of the year.

Dunaway, an executive vice president at Nintendo, revealed the game’s 2010 release window in an interview with Wired, during which she said software titles coming in the latter half are likely to be just as strong as those confirmed for the calendar’s opening six months.

“We all benefit if we keep a pretty steady pace, so the development teams have worked hard to make sure that we’ve got a full lineup this year,” commented Dunaway.

“If you compare the first half of 2010 with the first half of 2009, it’s night and day,” she added. “And from some of the things that [Nintendo president] Mr. Iwata has talked about, and that we will talk about at E3, like Zelda, you know that we’re going to have a good back half of the year, as well.”

Keen to keep Wii and DS units flying off store shelves by bolstering mainstay software franchises – something the company has been criticised for not doing during its recent focus on casual games – 2010 could provide Nintendo with plenty of reinvigorated consumer traction given that Mario, Metroid and Zelda represent its flagship properties.

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