The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake launches on Nintendo Switch 2 on 5 November, Nintendo confirmed during its Zelda 40th Anniversary Direct on 8 September. The broadcast also settled a question that had been circulating since a price leak surfaced hours earlier: whether the Ocarina of Time remake would be a straight, one-to-one remaster, or something rebuilt from the ground up.
Ocarina of Time remake price and release date
Before the Direct aired, the Australian Nintendo Store listed the digital edition at $94.95 AUD, putting the likely US price at $59.99. That estimate held. Nintendo’s own store now lists digital and physical pre-orders at $59.99 and $69.99 respectively, a $10 gap between the download and boxed versions. Physical stock has since seen a price cut of its own: Walmart and Amazon are offering the retail copy at $59.99, matching the digital eShop price, with early buyers getting a limited-edition textured foil cover included in the box.
Nintendo Japan published a key visual hours before the Direct aired. The broadcast itself ran for roughly half an hour and was the first substantial look at the game since June, closing with a 48-image screenshot gallery alongside confirmation of the November release date.
The same Direct also served as a wider 40th-anniversary showcase: Nintendo and Columbia Pictures revealed the title card for a live-action Legend of Zelda film, confirming an original story inspired by the series’ history and an April 30, 2027 release date. The teaser carried no footage, and Nintendo pointed audiences to its Nintendo Today app for further updates.
An open world, not a 1:1 remake
The gameplay reveal answered the 1:1 question the price leak had raised: this is not a port. Co-developed with Monolith Soft, the remake rebuilds Hyrule as a seamless, transition-free open world, replacing the load screens and area boundaries of the 1998 original. Combat has been modernised, and the dungeons are physics-based and redesigned rather than recreated room for room. Bringing in a second studio to handle that redesign, rather than reworking the original team’s assets, is itself a sign of how far this departs from a straight remaster.
The art direction marks a departure too. Where Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom used a cartoonish style, the remake goes for a more grounded look, with realistic rock textures, denser foliage and naturalistic lighting. That shift split opinion online, with reactions ranging from delight to confusion at the new visuals, Eurogamer reported.
It joins a run of confirmed Switch 2 exclusives leaning on the console’s hardware in different ways, including Stellar Blade’s frame generation trick to hit 60fps on Switch 2.
What to watch
By our arithmetic, physical copies already listed by scalpers above $150 are going for roughly 150% more than the $59.99 retail price, two months before the game even ships. With pre-orders now open across digital, physical and third-party retailers, the gap between retail and resale prices, and whether Nintendo Store stock keeps pace with demand, are worth tracking before 5 November.
Image: KK IN HK via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
