Nintendo Says Skyward Sword is [Nearly] Finished, Won’t be Coming Until After Ocarina

Last but not least, and most important to Zelda fans, the report from the investors’ meeting affirmed that Skyward Sword is “now entering into the final completion stage” of development. No release date was set, but with good news like this coming out of Nintendo’s mouth as we head into the 2011 software year, it’s extremely likely that we’ll be getting a date soon enough. The question now is how soon.

UPDATE: Apparently not soon enough. Iwata tells us to expect Ocarina of Time 3D first. That’d push Skyward Sword back to sometime after E3. UPDATE PART DEUX: Official translation of the full quote below.

Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo told me that he had a strong feeling that the new play control realized by Wii MotionPlus, which is now integrated into our Wii Remote as Wii Remote Plus, could significantly expand the comfort of the game play, especially when used in games like “The Legend of Zelda.” His team is now entering into the final completion stage of the game.

Talking about The Legend of Zelda franchise, what people called a masterpiece in the days of Nintendo 64, “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” has been in the process of being remade for Nintendo 3DS, and this Nintendo 3DS version is expected to hit the market earlier.

Nintendo also made mention of Zelda‘s 25th anniversary,

so it’s possible we’ll see Skyward Sword debut as early as February (probably not in time for the exact day) or early March

, but as we saw with Mario these anniversary releases can be postponed a few months. What I’d like to know is whether these “finishing touches” include Western localization. Zelda games have typically been great at having international releases in recent years, so it’d be nice to see that continue with Skyward Sword.

Either way, it sounds as though the game is more or less finished and ready to launch whenever Nintendo can wrap up production,

so we’ve got a lot of hope for an early 2011 release on target with their previous projections.

And with constant reassurance that the game wouldn’t release until it’s “perfect,” I can’t help but be absurdly excited.

Source: Nintendo Japan