Exciting Breath of the Wild 2 rumor hints at upcoming release date reveal

It’s been nearly a year since Nintendo unveiled The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, and the company might finally be ready to lift the curtain on another big teaser for Link’s next quest across Hyrule. If one leaker is correct, then we could be in for a release date for the sequel that's incredibly soon.

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An alleged leak surfaced online Monday claiming that an imminent BotW 2 update would soon reveal the game’s release date window for later this year. The unconfirmed information comes from video game discussion forum ResetEra, where user Bochica claimed to have heard about Nintendo’s BotW 2 plans through an acquaintance. They broke down that the next trailer will continue where the first one left off and that Nintendo is planning on debuting the trailer as early as the week of March 9.

To top all of that off, the post also asserts that Nintendo is aiming for a “Holiday 2020” BotW 2 release date.

Here are the relevant portions of the post that has been edited for clarity:

“[In the trailer] we would see ... all the different peoples of the game after [Link’s] victory [over Calamity Ganon]: Already known towns and villages would be the same, except for Hateno village which would be way bigger and have more inhabitants. ... At the end an earthquake would disturb the peace … Something would come to hide the sun … [everyone] would look up at the same time [and see] Hyrule Castle lifted into the air. [Like] the first teaser at E3, a series of similar pictures would come to end it, [that will be the] only moment where we would actually see Link and Zelda. No title [will be] indicated only a ‘Holidays 2020’ [release date window]."

The Inverse Analysis

While the description of what could appear in the trailer seems completely plausible, a holiday 2020 release date window is far too early based on what we’ve heard from more trustworthy Nintendo insiders.

Reputable leaker Sabi tweeted early in February that the development on the Breath of the Wild sequel is proceeding slower than expected and therefore the game won't be released anytime soon. With that in mind, a release in November would be totally out of the question. Plus, it seems unlike Nintendo to set forth such an ambitious deadline without even giving BotW 2 an official title yet. A full release six months from now? No way!

The description of the potential trailer does make a lot of sense, on the other hand. The E3 2019 BotW 2 teaser leaves off on a cliffhanger as Hyrule Castle begins to float into the sky. Giving fans another angle of this mysterious occurrence could stir up even more fan theories about who the next villain is that Link and Zelda could face off against in the sequel.

Bochica goes on to say that their source, who was allegedly on the editing team for the trailer, said work on the video wrapped “last week” and that Nintendo was about “10 days” away from releasing it. That suggests that a Nintendo Direct might arrive as soon as March 9 that showcases this trailer.

There has been speculation that the company is planning a big announcement this month, but this is the first time we’ve heard about such a massive BotW 2 reveal. Bochica didn’t provide any hard evidence for their claims, so fans will need to continue waiting to see if any of this information proves to be accurate. At the very least, the most optimistic outlook is that their trailer predictions are accurate — which will be confirmed within the next week either way — but a release date of later this year seems way too farfetched to become a reality.