The game is designed to surprise long-term fans of the series

Jul 4, 2014 08:30 GMT  ·  By

One of the biggest surprises that Nintendo unveiled during E3 2014 was a first look at a new The Legend of Zelda video game, which is set to be launched on the Wii U and is designed to deliver updated graphics and an open world structure for the classic series.

But Shigeru Miyamoto, the leading video game developer working at the company, believes that both fans and investors who are seeing the title as one of the most important launches for the Nintendo home console should be careful about the hopes they place upon it.

During a Questions & Answers session after the most recent general assembly, the game maker explains that “I prefer not to use the generally used term ‘open world’ when developing software, but we used this term in order to make it easier for consumers to understand. This term means that there is a large world in which players can do numerous things daily.”

Miyamoto explains that the team is aiming to evolve the series so that players no longer get an idea about where they are in the story by simply knowing how many dungeons they have finished and how many they have to deal with.

Nintendo has offered a limited look at The Legend of Zelda on the Wii U and has promised that more details will be revealed during the coming months, including the way enemies can surprise the player and the weapons that Link will use.

Miyamoto adds, “In ‘The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds’, we broke that down and let the player rent different items from the beginning, so the player could use different combinations of items. In this way, we are gradually changing the structure of The Legend of Zelda series, and we are preparing to newly evolve the series for Wii U.”

The Wii U has been selling well under the internal projections at Nintendo and has only managed to deliver 2.8 million units to gamers in fiscal year 2013, while the expectation was that it would sell 9 million.

The launch of Mario Kart 8 has managed to deliver a solid boost to the home console, and Nintendo believes that Super Smash Bros., which should be out before the end of the year, will push the positive trend forward.

The Legend of Zelda does not currently have a launch date, but fans are hoping that the company will be able to launch it in time for the 2015 Christmas shopping season.