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There is barely anything that has not been said about Breath of the Wild. The game got a 97 score at Metacritic, was Game of the Year, is from one of the most prestigious franchises in gaming and is made by the most tradional publisher in the market.

But I still sometimes hear people not giving it credit and saying the Breath of the Wild is only considered special because it is the first true open world game played by Nintendo gamers, which is not true because of Xenoblade, and diminishes all the great features that this game brought and that changed gaming forever.

So here are 4 reasons why Breath of the Wild is the most important game in the last 10 years.

1. It changed the Zelda formula.

The Legend of Zelda is one of gaming's most important franchises. It has been both a force for revolution and a quality standard in the industry for 40 years. However, some games, no matter how important they are, become dated. Resident Evil had the courage to change its format in 2005 with Resident Evil 4. God of War had the courage to change its format in 2018 with God of War. The same thing happened to Zelda.

The old formula made by A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time was great, but got dated. It takes a lot of courage for one franchise this big to take a risk and abandon its main formula. And its huge when it happens and it works flawlessly. Resident Evil 4, God of War and Breath of the Wild were all considered game of the year for that.

2. It changed open-world games for the better.

Open world gaming has been a thing since the late 90s and it really took form with GTA 3 and Morrowind. Ever since, open world games found their form, but like I discussed above, a grest formula can also get dated. The main open world Formula was used by Rockstar, Sony, CD Project but has been known as the Ubisoft formula, where you have a big map full of objectives your main goal is to go to every place on the map and solve the quest, even if its part of the campaign or a side quest. But when Zelda arrived, it changed its focus from quest solving to true exploration.

It showed how artifical open world games had become. Even great games like Witcher 3, which has much better world building and side quests than Zelda, still feel kinda artificial when compared to Zelda. Games like Skyrim also exists, but those games focused more on hlw your character develops than on the exploration. Breath of the Wild made it possible for games like Elden Ring and Crimson Desert to exist and the industry is better for it.

3. It saved the Switch launch.

Pretend we are in january of 2017. Nintendo was in the end of the WiiU/3DS era and just had their Switch presentation. They showed a 3D Mario for the end of the year. They showed an Splatoon sequel for summer. But the only new game announced at that presentation for the launch was 1-2 Switch. At the end of that presentation they showed an amazing trailer that confirmed that Zelda, which had previously been confirmed to come to the Switch, would be a launch title. Nintendo stock fell. People concluded that the only good game on the launch of the platform would be Zelda and thst could be a problem.

What people couldn't have known is how strong Zelda would be. It saved the Switch launch by itself and paved the road to what might end up being the best selling console of all time. If Zelda failed, the Switch could have failed. If the Switch failed, Nintendo would probably have gone third party. And an industry with less competiton is definetly worse.

4. It destroyed the concept of "handheld game".

From the launch of the Gameboy in 1989 with Tetris until the launch of Breath of the Wild in 2017, the industry had a concept of what a handheld game was. It was either a smaller scope game than its home console counterpart, like GTA LCS and GOW:GoS or it was a differente kind of game, like Phantom Hourglass was compared to Twilight Princess.

But then, 2017 arrived and Zelda broke that barrier. It bacame the first handheld game to win game of the year and changed gaming forever. When the Steam Deck arrived, its main drawn was being able to play Elden Ring on the go. Handhelds are back in fashion and they aim to play every game that is being released. The Switch 2 did not get RE Revelations 3, it got RE9. And from now on there is no such thing as a handheld game. Every game is a handheld game.

A trolley problem is supposidely decided by which outcome results in less suffering. However, since the results are determined by the majority decision and not only your own, it becomes a discussion about human nature.

What makes this interesting is that there are obviously people choosing both sides since it is an uncoordenated situation. The only way for no one to die in this situation is if 50%+ of the population decides to vote blue. But here are the two questions that we all make ourselves: Would we willing to risk our live to try to save everyone? And do we have faith that the majority of people would choose to vote blue. If not, by voting blue I would be wasting my life for nothing.

And here is the real question: Do we have faith in society? Do we believe that there is redemption in human nature or we are all the result of the selfish gene that just want to survive and pass on?

This is what the question is truly about. Some would be selfish. Some would be selfless. But what would most be? Honestly I don't know. And by not knowing, it would probably make me choose red. And maybe this kind of thought would lead to the death of billions.

Very interesting debate.

Nintendo decided to announce a Switch 2 bundled with Pokopia in Australia starting at June 5th. It will cost the same as the Mario Kart Bundle.

Ok. So what? Here is where things gets interesting. This week Nintendo will have an investors meeting to talk about the results of the last fiscal year and their strategies for 2026. There was a lot fear of Nintendo announcing that they may be considering raising the prices of the Switch 2 due to the market conditions(Tariffs+RAM Crisis+Oil Crisis).

However, since Nintendo already announced a bundle on the same price for June, this price hike does not seem imminent, if it happens at all.

Nintendo unlike Sony does not have a user base of 90+ million of their more modern consoles. Unlike Steam they need to sell their own hardware. Unlike Microsoft they don't sell their game on other platforms. If they don't sell the Switch 2, they choke their ability to sell games, which is by far their most important revenue source.

So they need the Switch 2 to continue to sell great and that is why the price seems to be remaining the same, even if they are losing some money on each console, something that Nintendo usually does not do historically.

So yeah, this may be hopium, but I am cautiously optmistic that Nintendo might be holding the line at this moment.