It’s 2023, and that means The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom is releasing THIS YEAR! Which of course for all Legend of Zelda fans like myself, is very exciting news. Talking of news, today I am going to round up the latest Zelda news and rumours doing the rounds including a potential new Nintendo Switch OLED model for Tears of the Kingdom, signs indicate online features for Tears of the Kingdom, plus rumours that the sequel to Breath of the Wild could be the final major Nintendo release for Nintendo Switch.

Before we get into the news today, let me know in the comments if you want to see a Tears of the Kingdom OLED Switch, plus what do you think the online suppport is and what would you want it to be? Share your thoughts of the latest Zelda news in the comments.

Without further delay lets get into the Zelda news.

Leaked images of a Tears of the Kingdom Nintendo Switch OLED Model appear online

Source: Nintendo Life, Gavin Lane

Images of a special edition Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Nintendo Switch OLED Model have surfaced online, with photos of a Zelda-themed dock and set of Joy-Con, plus the box.

Apparently found on the Chinese forum Tieba and posted to Famiboards by user Kysen (thanks, My Nintendo News), they show a pair of gold Joy-Con sporting green (left) and white (right) motifs from the game and white rear panels to match the dock. The dock has similar gold markings emblazoned across the front, with the rear of the console itself (black) featuring subtly embossed motifs similar to those found on other special edition OLED consoles.

Here’s the box — you can find more photos at the links above:

Whether these images are legitimate or elaborate fakes is unclear at the moment, although they do look impressively (and perhaps a little boringly) authentic.

The game launches on 12th May 2023 and if this is the real McCoy, we imagine this special edition Switch would launch around that time or in the weeks just prior.

Breath of the Wild launched alongside the original Switch back in 2017, of course, though a pair of special edition Zelda Joy-Con were released when Skyward Sword HD launched back in 2021.

A few days ago some leaked marketing materials for the game showed a Nintendo Switch Online label, leading to speculation that the game might include some sort of online functionality or multiplayer component. However, it’s just as likely that the NSO label is related to cloud saves, so don’t get your hopes up.

Tears of the Kingdom promo material mentions online support

Source: Reddit

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is heading our way on 12th May and promotional and marketing materials are starting to do the rounds. A Dutch gamer has snapped a photo of one of the in-store marketing materials for the eagerly awaited open world adventure game and it mentions NIntendo Switch Online support. This could be as simple as cloud save support or it could relate to additional downloadable content which we saw with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. We received the The Master Trials as the first DLC pack DLC Pack 2 included The Champions’ Ballad. We will know more once Nintendo reveals further details on the game which will presumably come in the form of a Nintendo Direct.

Tears of the Kingdom could be the final major release for Nintendo Switch

Gaming Bolt, Shubhankar Parijat

Nintendo doesn’t have a lot of big first party releases planned for 2023 so far, but with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom coming out in a few months’ time, there’s still plenty of excitement in the Switch userbase. However, it seems like that might also be the last major game Nintendo releases for a while- and the last major game it releases on the Switch, period.

Recently, journalists Christopher Dring (of GamesIndustry) and Andy Robinson (of VGC) took to Twitter and stated that based on what they’ve heard, Nintendo doesn’t have a significant new release planned for the Switch after Zelda “for quite some time”. Interestingly, Robinson suggests this might be due to focus shifting internally to the Switch’s successor, with Nintendo potentially beginning to speak about new hardware “by 2024.”

Of course, Tears of the Kingdom isn’t the only first party game that Nintendo’s got in the pipeline for the Nintendo Switch, with the likes of Pikmin 4 and Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe also currently in the works, but it is worth noting that the Japanese giant doesn’t have anything announced that would be on quite the same level as a new Zelda game.

Reports have certainly suggested that the company is working on its next major hardware release. It has been stockpiling raw materials, hinting it imminent large-scale manufacturing plans, while references to new hardware were also spotted last year in Nvidia-related leaks.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, meanwhile, is due out for the Switch on May 12. A themed limited edition Switch OLED model was also recently shown in leaked images- read more on that through here.

Tears of the Kingdom gets rated by the ESRB

It appears that the hotly-anticipated The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has received its official rating for North America by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (or ESRB, if you will).

Unsurprisingly, the game has been rated E10+, with warnings of Fantasy Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes (thanks, Go Nintendo). This places the game in exactly the same position as its predecessor, Breath of the Wild, which received the same rating back in 2017.

While the initial game trailer showcased Link and his poorly arm from the get-go (posing some pretty gross scenarios about all things bodily) this rating suggests that the game probably won’t go too hard on that front. If BOTW is anything to go by, then the scares and injury detail are likely to be kept to a minimum.

The rating can now be found in all of its glory over on the North American eShop as seen above.

It has been a while now since we last caught any official news on TOTK thanks to the game’s no-show at the recent TGAs (wow, that’s a lot of acronyms for one sentence). However, the game is still set to release on 12th May, 2023 so we can expect the marketing to really pick up in the new year – Zelda Direct anyone??

Let me know in the comments what you think of the latest Zelda news.