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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's development is complete

According to director Eiji Aonuma, Tears of the Kingdom has officially gone gold and development is finished on the game.

TJ Denzer

March 28, 2023 8:45 AM

Image via Nintendo

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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been in development for quite a long time, but Nintendo has revealed that the game is finally complete. During the recent Tears of the Kingdom gameplay presentation, director Eiji Aonuma revealed that development on the game has finally finished. All that’s left is for it to launch.

This was a tidbit dropped very early in the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom gameplay presentation on March 28, 2023. According to Eiji Aonuma (and well ahead of the May release date), development of Tears of the Kingdom has been finalized. The game has essentially gone gold.

“Development on The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is now complete,” Aonuma said to kick off the presentation. “Thank you very much for waiting.”

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is set to come out in May 2023, so now all that’s left to do is to wait for the game to launch. Of course, this means there will likely be no delays or hiccups when it comes to the launch as well, so there should be no changing that May date at this point.

The Tears of the Kingdom presentation hosted a cavalcade of other reveals as well. Weapon degradation is back, but Link’s abilities have also been expanded with exciting new options like Fuse, which seems to allow you to combine all sorts of things into weapons, gadgets, and vehicles for your use. Additionally, we also learned that a new Tears of the Kingdom edition Switch OLED is coming out alongside a new travel case and Pro Controller.

With the development of the game complete, Nintendo seems confident after at least five years of development that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is where it needs to be. We’ll find out for ourselves in May. Stay tuned for more details as we close in on that release date.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.