The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was a blockbuster hit when it launched earlier this year but, unlike its predecessor, it appears Nintendo has no plans to follow up on it with DLC or other post-release content.
In an interview with the Japanese publication Famitsu on Sept. 6, long-time Zelda lead and TotK producer Eiji Aonuma said the team behind the game “do not plan to release any additional content,” largely because they feel the world they created in Breath of the Wild and expanded upon in the sequel is complete in a way.
“We feel that we have done everything we can to create fun in that world,” Aonuma said to Famitsu. “The reason we decided to make this a sequel to the previous game was because we felt there was value in experiencing a new type of play in that Hyrule setting.”
As it stands now, it seems the team is not working on any DLC or post-launch content outside of the bug fixes and small updates that have been released semi-frequently since May. Comparatively, BotW’s The Master Trials and The Champions’ Ballad expansions were released in June and December of 2017 following the game’s original March 3 release that same year.
TotK director Hidemaro Fujibayashi simply noted that he is thinking about “the next fun experience” for Zelda and says that the team currently doesn’t know what form that will take. Likewise, Aonuma didn’t shut any doors despite knocking DLC rumors from the sky—though there is always a chance it still happens.
According to Aonuma, if there are ideas that form and renew ideas that could shape the Hyrule depicted in BotW and TotK in new ways, there is a chance they will go back once again. For now, however, he just hopes that everyone will look forward to “a whole new [way to] play” whether it be another sequel or a new work.
This is poetic in a way since it is well-documented that TotK spawned from several ideas during DLC development for BotW that the team saw potential in and expanded upon from “scratch.”
Fujibayashi also said that the Zelda team does not view BotW or TotK as “hurdles” that their future work needs to clear despite how heavily they impacted the wider video game landscape. All he asks is that players keep their “expectations high” for future projects and that he will do his best to “make the next game even more enjoyable.”
