Nintendo could tease Breath of the Wild 2 in an upcoming earnings call

A release date for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 might soon be announced, according to a trusted games leaker. Nintendo hasn’t updated fans on the status of Link’s next adventure since the game was revealed to be in development during E3 2019, but that silence might end very soon.

Nintendo will be holding an earnings call at the end of its fiscal year on March 31. The majority of this report will primarily consist of company executives running through the past year in revenue and the company's business plan in the year to come, but it could also offer some kind of tease as to when we could hear more about BotW 2.

The core audience for earnings calls are towards investors, analysts, and journalists looking to gauge the fiscal health of a company, so don’t expect a full-fledged release date reveal or anything that resembles promotional trailers or clips. Nintendo typically saves big game updates for consumer-facing events, like Nintendo Direct presentations or industry conferences like E3 to get the most eye-balls on upcoming products as possible. But just because an earnings call focuses on money, that doesn’t mean the company won’t drop a juicy hint about when gamers could learn more about BotW 2. In fact, companies will often forecast future revenue for investors when major releases are on the calendar already.

Nintendo traditionally is a bit reserved when it comes to announced new titles and hardware, but the company has provided some clues about upcoming launches in previous financial reports. During a January earnings call, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa straight-up told investors and reporters that there won’t be any new Switch hardware in 2020.

“Regarding Nintendo Switch, we believe that it is important to continue to communicate the appeal of both Nintendo Switch systems and expand the installed base,” he said. “Please note that we have no plans to launch a new Nintendo Switch model during 2020.”

During that same call, the company mentioned Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, both of which had release dates but were a month away. The report also brought up a “robust variety of appealing titles from other software publishers scheduled to be released” without directly mentioning any unreleased titles.

The company could use the same cryptic language to hint at an imminent BotW 2 launch as a way to invigorate investors while everyone is worried about the coronavirus.

It’s been about a year since Nintendo said anything about BotW 2, so fans will be expecting some kind of update at some point in the next few months. On top of that, the fact that E3 2020 was canceled due to the global coronavirus pandemic means Nintendo will most likely air a Direct announcement in early June when E3 was supposed to take place. So if an update doesn’t happen this month fans will likely hear about BotW 2 by mid-2020.