The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is easily one of the most successful games released this year. It is tied with Baldur’s Gate 3 for 2023’s highest-rated game by critics (both with an average of 96), and it sold an impressive 18.5 million units in just a month and a half, becoming the fastest-selling Zelda game ever made and the fastest selling Nintendo game in the United States.
Despite all that, Nintendo has now confirmed it has no plans to release any additional DLC for the game. Speaking to Famitsu, producer Eiji Aonuma explained:
There are no plans to release additional content this time, but that’s because I feel like we’ve done everything we can to create fun in that world. In the first place, the reason I decided to make this a sequel to the previous work was because I thought there was value in experiencing a new game in that Hyrule place. Then, if such a reason is newly born, it may return to the same world again. Whether it’s a sequel or a new work, I think it will be a completely new game, so I’d be happy if you look forward to it.
This is doubly surprising because the game’s predecessor, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, did get two major DLCs: The Master Trials and The Champions’ Ballad. While the former added gameplay modes, features, and items, the latter introduced a new dungeon, story content, gear, challenges, and the extremely cool motorcycle Master Cycle Zero.
Good, it doesn’t need it. It was released as a complete game and I’m happy to see it stay that way.
I would like a Master Mode. I miss those golden Lynels.
In a way, I’m glad to hear this. I mean, for one thing I’m cheap, but more importantly, I never got around to playing the DLC for BotW. I 100%'d the base game (well, minus the koroks) before the DLC even came out, and I’ve tried numerous times to get through the DLC when it did come out, and I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I know it’s totally just a me thing, but when I’m done with a game, I’m done with it. So I’ve been waiting for the TotK DLC to all come out, then I’d play through it all in one fell swoop. I guess this means I could have started playing months ago, seeing as I bought it months ago, but whatever.
Kind of a shame. Can they at least release an update that adds master mode? It’s weird that it wasn’t included and has been a staple in the franchise.
I was going to make a joke like: Cool, just as many as Breath of the Wild. Until I realised: Wait, Breath of the Wild has DLC?! How did I ever miss that?!
