Job listings posted by Nintendo suggest that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel release date is probably still a long way off. Fans were hugely excited when Nintendo announced the new game at E3 2019, but it now seems that they will have a long wait to play it.

On the Nintendo Japan careers page, the company confirms that it is recruiting to new positions to work on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel. One of these is for a 3DCG terrain designer who will be designing terrain for locations such as the game's field dungeons.

The other job listing is for a level designer who will work on a "series of tasks" such as designing things such as game events and dungeons. Other members of the development team have said that they've been taking some tips from Rockstar's open-world game Red Dead Redemption 2, so designers who know their way around the cowboy epic may suit the position.

Designers have until the end of September to submit their applications, and those hired will be on a three month trial basis with the chance to renew the contract and work on the game until development is completed. The job listings may suggest that the release of the new Legend of Zelda game is much further off than expected. If Nintendo is still hiring people to make some of the game's most important areas, then its release date could well be years away.

Fans of the fantasy franchise may have hoped that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel would release much earlier. The game will reuse the map of Hyrule and this may have freed up some resources and allowed development on the game to go much quicker. However, fans of the series love exploring and finding new secrets and areas and creating these will take time.

It's not such a bad thing if it takes the development team much longer to finish the game. Nintendo has explained its approach to game development crunch, saying that it won't release a game before it's ready. It delayed Animal Crossing: New Horizons because of this, as it didn't want to force that game's development team to work long, difficult hours to complete it. If The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel team is happy and healthy, it's more likely to create a great game than if it tried to make the game in a rush.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel will be released exclusively for Nintendo Switch.

Source: Nintendo Japan