This week, Nintendo Japan announced that The Legend of Zelda Wii U release date will be moved from 2015 to 2016 to coincide with its 30th anniversary of the franchise. According to Matt Furtado of the Examiner, "Series producer Eiji Aonuma recently spoke with Famitsu and gave a development update on Zelda for Wii U. With next year being the 30th anniversary for the Zelda franchise, Aonuma also spoke on possible plans to celebrate the milestone."
In the same article, Aonuma said that the development of Zelda is the only thing on their minds right now. That statement left Furtado to posit a speculation that the game could be released not just for the Wii U, but also for Nintendo's next generation console, codenamed NX.
Neoseeker reporter Philip Moody shares Furtado's NX speculation. "Nintendo has been relatively quiet about Zelda Wii U, possibly making some Hylians question whether the game is going to come out for the Wii U and not just be a game that gets released later on for the upcoming NX system."
The Wii U, NX speculation is gaining a lot of traction online. However, Tamoor Hussain of Gamespot (as published in Yahoo News) is quick to counter that the Wii U and NX parallel release is not officially confirmed by Nintendo. That said, Hussain also mentioned that Nintendo did a similar thing in the past with the release of Twilight Princess for both the Gamecube and Wii.
In a previous interview, Aonuma disclosed that Zelda Wii U will have an "open-world" which could be as big as the console can handle. Shigeru Miyato also stated in an interview that the game will be huge because the whole map of Twilight Princess is just one area in the new game.
The Legend of Zelda Wii U is a placeholder name as the 19th main installment of the franchise is yet to be named formally.
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