Tears of the Kingdom Developers Reiterate That No DLC is Planned for the Game
Posted on September 16 2023 by Rod Lloyd
Last week, The Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma, in an interview with Famitsu, seemed to dash the hopes of fans who had been crossing their fingers for the release of Tears of the Kingdom DLC or expansions. When responding to a question regarding the team’s next project, Aonuma stated that there were “no plans to release additional content this time,” indicating that our time in the Hyrule of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom was over.
The apparent vagueness of Aonuma’s statement didn’t deter everyone though, as some took it to merely mean that the Zelda team did not have plans to release a third full game in that world. Maybe DLC, including Master Mode and more Shrines, was still on the way, some thought. That wishful thinking won’t be rewarded, however, as Aonuma, in a new statement to NPR, reiterated, in more explicit terms, that “there will not be any DLC” in Tears of the Kingdom.
Aonuma provided the following email response to NPR:
“[In Tears of the Kingdom] we were able to implement all of the elements that we wanted to achieve in this world and this story, so there will not be any DLC. Please continue to enjoy the vast world of Hyrule.”
While Aonuma’s confirmation that the new game will not receive DLC has surely been a blow to many, he and Tears of the Kingdom director Hidemaro Fujibayashi did attempt to temper the conversation by briefly touching on their plans for the future:
Breath of the Wild broke with past titles, while Tears of the Kingdom built directly on its predecessor. Looking ahead, what direction excites you most? How do you balance trying new things and refining past accomplishments?
Eiji Aonuma: After we finished development for the Breath of the Wild DLC, I felt that this world still had more gameplay and surprises for us to create, and the new gameplay that Fujibayashi proposed right around that time was something that was worth doing precisely because its foundation was Breath of the Wild, so we decided to develop that concept as a sequel to Breath of the Wild.
Fujibayashi: It is true that the foundation is Breath of the Wild, but when I am designing a game, I am always thinking about new gameplay that we can provide. What kind of experiences will surprise and delight the player? So we were of course thinking about those things when developing Tears of the Kingdom. If we were to consider doing a Zelda game that is even more different than what we have done in the past, we would want to challenge ourselves to try new things, and I think we would still start with the question “What sort of experience do we want to provide this time?”
While Fujibayashi didn’t offer much there, we at least know that the Zelda team is looking to new ideas for their next project.
What do you make of Aonuma’s and Fujibayshi’s responses? Are you disappointed that Tears of the Kingdom isn’t getting DLC? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: NPR
Rod Lloyd is the Editor-In-Chief at Zelda Dungeon, overseeing the news and feature content for the site. Rod is considered the veteran of the writing team, having started writing for Zelda Informer in 2014 as a Junior Editor. After ZD and ZI officially merged in 2017, he stepped into the Managing Editor role and has helped steer the ship ever since. He stepped up to lead the writing team as Editor-In-Chief in 2023.
You can reach Rod at: rod.lloyd@zeldadungeon.net
