The Legend of Zelda for Wii U Could Have Multiplayer, Producer Teases

The longtime producer and director of The Legend of Zelda series has teased that we could be seeing multiplayer in its next major installment on the Wii U.

In an interview with Game Informer, Eiji Aonuma hinted that we could be seeing some form of multiplayer in the upcoming Legend of Zelda title for Wii U. Aonuma is working as a supervisor on the upcoming Hyrule Warriors title and is producing the next major installment of The Legend of Zelda series on Wii U.

When asked about multiplayer in both Hyrule Warriors and the next Zelda title, Aonuma responded with the following:

The two-player functionality of Hyrule Warriors is actually something that has traditionally been done in the Dynasty Warriors series, but they’ve changed because of the hardware and the second screen on your GamePad. Instead of having a splitscreen on the television, you have one-player playing on the television and one on the GamePad. When I was talking back about making Zelda more than just a single-player experience? That’s something you will see in the future, maybe next year.

In particular, "maybe next year" refers to The Legend of Zelda for Wii U having a launch window of 2015. Hyrule Warriors having two player should not be much of a big deal, since many Dynasty Warriors titles have had the feature in the past, but we are more interested in how The Legend of Zelda for Wii U would handle multiplayer gameplay. The last time we have seen a Zelda title take on multiplayer was the last Four Swords title.

Hyrule Warriors will bring Link and Zelda to the battlefield on Sept. 26, while The Legend of Zelda for Wii U still has an estimated launch window of 2015.