This time last year, Nintendo’s 2026 plans were a bit of a mystery. We knew that games like Pokémon Pokopia and Mario Tennis Fever would round out the Switch 2’s first year, but we still had few clues about what would be 2026’s big game for the platform. Now, we know that Nintendo was hiding a big secret during that time.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time would be the Switch 2’s tentpole 2026 game, giving players (and Nintendo’ holiday sales) a blockbuster remake. Nate Bihldorff, Nintendo’s SVP of product development and publishing, knew that would be a very big deal. During our conversation about Ocarina of Time, Bihldorff explained how the critically acclaimed Zelda game fits into the Switch 2’s growing software lineup.
The Switch 2’s first year of games was especially eclectic, giving players left-field swings like Kirby Air Riders and Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. While the lineup was strong, some Nintendo players wondered when the publisher would roll out its biggest guns. But Nintendo was confident about holding on to a system-selling announcement for a little while, because it had plenty of faith in the Switch 2’s initial software lineup.
And the beauty of having so many different IPs that appeal to different people is that you can have a cycle of different games that come out. It doesn’t matter how excited I am about Donkey Kong Bananza at launch; there’s always going to be more games that are coming down the pipeline. This felt no different than that.” While Ocarina of Time was likely to be a slam dunk, it’s a creatively risky project on paper.
Players have strong feelings about the original game, which has long been hailed as the greatest video game of all time. According to Bihldorff, the developers were aware of the stakes, but they were more excited than nervous about working on the remake. The final product really speaks for itself.” Part of that excitement comes from the hardware the game was built on.
In an interview with Polygon earlier in the day, Zelda producer Hidemaro Fujibayashi stressed that the Switch 2 granted developers the opportunity to realize Ocarina of Time in a way that mid-’90s gaming technology simply wouldn’t allow. It’s the second major remake of the year for the company, following June’s Star Fox. (Though not a literal remake, 2025’s Kirby Air Riders was also, in many ways, a revisiting of the GameCube’s Kirby Air Ride.) Was it a coincidence of timing, or a signal of a strategic shift for Nintendo as it looks to bring back its most beloved games? Bihldorff emphasized that while original games are still as important as ever for Nintendo, remakes are a big part of Nintendo’s software plans right now.
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