Former Employees Say Zelda Was In Dire Straits Before Breath Of The Wild

Former Nintendo of America employees Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang have said that The Legend of Zelda was struggling badly before Breath of the Wild launched.

The two spoke about it in a podcast this week. Ellis said he attended focus groups at the time and saw that the fan base was shrinking and that the series was not bringing in new players.

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Their point is that the traditional 3D Zelda games had been losing their audience, and Nintendo needed a big change. Ellis and Yang said:

The series was in like dire straits. They were selling like nothing.

Sales figures back up part of their account. Twilight Princess sold nearly nine million copies, while Skyward Sword sold under four million on its original Wii release.

Breath of the Wild changed that trend. The game has since sold almost 35 million copies, which is a much bigger number than any earlier new Zelda title reached.