No early download for The Wind Waker HD in Europe

Zelda Dungeon reported earlier that The Wind Waker HD‘s Wii U bundle and special edition would not be coming to Australia and New Zealand. Unfortunately, those countries aren’t the only ones that will miss out on a part of the game’s release. Nintendo has confirmed that the early downloadable version of the game confirmed for North America will not be available in Europe.

More after the jump.The launch date for the retail version of The Wind Waker HD, October 4th, is the same for North America and Europe. North Americans, however, will be able to download the game from the Wii U eShop a few weeks earlier on September 20th. This option will apparently not be available in Europe.

“The US launch date is September 20th,” Nintendo told VideoGamer in a statement Thursday. “The EU launch date is the 4th October.”

Nintendo has offered not reason for the discrepancy between the two regions.

It’s disappointing that Zelda fans in Europe will not be able to play The Wind Waker HD as soon as they might have hoped. Even though I would rather wait to pick up a physical version of the game at retail, as an American, I appreciate having the earlier opportunity to download the game available to me.

Although it’s possible that Nintendo might change its mind about offering Europeans early access to The Wind Waker HD, for for now, the prospect of watching Zelda fans across the Atlantic enjoy the game before them is a tough pill to swallow.

Source: VideoGamer