In the video game space and certain other media brands, there is an “expectation” and belief that when something does really well, there will be “add-on content” to give the title, or they’ll find a way to grow it via a spinoff or expansion of some kind. In video games, that means you give a game DLC more times than not. When The Legend of Zelda Tears of The Kingdom released and was an instant hit, many felt that the game would receive DLC of some kind, if for no other reason than its predecessor got some meaningful DLC a year or so after its release.
However, Nintendo had already shot that down, which stunned fans. And now, Tears of The Kingdom Producer Eiji Aonuma has said in an interview with The Telegraph that the reason that there isn’t any DLC is that the team really did put everything they had into the title:
“When making Tears of the Kingdom, we were able to implement all of the ideas we had on the development side. I think lots of players will have already completed the main game, but we aren’t creating any DLC this time. We as the development team are hoping you will continue to enjoy this huge land of Hyrule.”
That honestly does feel like an honest answer as to why there won’t be additional content. The team had said in an interview previously that when they went from the last game to this one, they looked at the new version of Hyrule they had created and simply asked what they could add to it, and they added quite a lot. They had been restricted a bit with the first game because it was originally built for the Wii U before being transferred to the Nintendo Switch. Then, when they worked on the new game, they had full access to the Switch’s capabilities, which allowed them to do new and fresh things they couldn’t have done before.
A key example was The Depths, which added vast new areas of the game’s world to enjoy, and they made that section somewhat quickly and were even able to make it a seamless place that gamers could go to.
The bright side to all of this is that even though the game won’t be getting DLC, the team has basically said they’re working on the next entry for the franchise! That means they’re already starting the game that’ll be on the next Nintendo system.
