In a release from Nintendo, the company announced it would be giving 500 lucky fans a chance to play the highly-anticipated new The Legend of Zelda title early. “From June 14 through June 19, 500 Nintendo fans will be among the first people in the world to play The Legend of Zelda for the Wii U console at the Nintendo NY store,” reads the release on Business Wire.
The six-day free event will begin at noon ET on June 14, when fans will be invited to watch gameplay of The Legend of Zelda live-streamed from Nintendo’s booth at this year’s E3 video game trade show in Los Angeles to the 15-foot gaming screen inside Nintendo NY. This will be the world’s first in-depth look at the game. Then at 3 p.m. ET, the first of 500 fans will begin sampling the game for the first time.
It appears Nintendo is going all out for the newest title in The Legend of Zelda franchise before, during and after E3.
The new Legend of #Zelda will be the focus of #E3 2016. It will launch simultaneously on both Wii U and NX in 2017 pic.twitter.com/ZMOV1BgmO5
— Nintendo UK (@NintendoUK) April 27, 2016
Rather than reveal the NX at E3, Nintendo plans to focus all of its efforts on the upcoming The Legend of Zelda title – giving fans a first chance to actually play the game at the conference. There is not a plethora of information on the game, and Nintendo plans to use this year’s E3 to shed some light on the title.
This news confirms the Wii U will be the only Nintendo console in history (other than the failed Virtual Boy) to not have an exclusive The Legend of Zelda title. While Twilight Princess was released on both the original Wii and Gamecube, each console had Skyward Sword and Windwaker, respectively.