<Tr> <Th> Mode (s) </Th> <Td> Single - player </Td> </Tr> <P> The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a 2017 action - adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for Nintendo Switch and Wii U . An entry in the longrunning The Legend of Zelda series, Breath of the Wild takes place at the end of the Zelda timeline; the player controls Link, who awakens from a hundred - year slumber to defeat Calamity Ganon before it can destroy the kingdom of Hyrule . </P> <P> Similarly to the original Legend of Zelda (1986), players are given little instruction and can explore the open world freely . Tasks include collecting multipurpose items to aid in objectives or solving puzzles and side quests for rewards . Breath of the Wild's world is unstructured and designed to reward experimentation, and the story can be completed in a nonlinear fashion . Development of Breath of the Wild lasted five years . Wanting to reinvent the series, Nintendo introduced elements such as a detailed physics engine, high - definition visuals, and voice acting . Monolith Soft assisted in designing landscapes . The game was planned for release in 2015 as a Wii U exclusive, but was delayed twice due to problems with the physics engine . Released on March 3, 2017, Breath of the Wild was a launch game for Switch and the final Nintendo game for Wii U . Two downloadable content packs were released later in 2017 . </P> <P> Breath of the Wild received acclaim for its open - ended gameplay and attention to detail, with many publications describing it as one of the greatest video games of all time . Critics called it a landmark in open - world design, despite minor criticism for its technical performance at launch . It won numerous awards, including several game of the year awards . By June 2018, Breath of the Wild had sold over 10.8 million copies worldwide, making it the bestselling Zelda game . </P>

When was breath of the wild first announced