GTA 6 vs Zelda: Nintendo's Bold Bet on Ocarina of Time Remake

What if the biggest game launch of the decade wasn't the only thing worth playing this November? That's the question Nintendo seems to be answering with its upcoming remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which is set to launch just two weeks before GTA 6. While most publishers are running for cover, Nintendo is standing its ground, and one expert says they're the only ones who could pull it off.

Aakash Gupta, a former Fortnite producer at Epic Games and now a product strategy writer, took to Twitter to break down the "game of chicken" that is release date scheduling. "GTA 6 is so big that every major game publisher evacuated November. Except Nintendo, who scheduled a remake of the highest-rated game ever made, a 99 on Metacritic, two weeks in front of it," he wrote. The numbers back up the fear: GTA 5 made $1 billion in just three days back in 2013, and DFC Intelligence projects GTA 6 will clear $3.2 billion in its first year. For context, 2024's biggest Hollywood release, Inside Out 2, grossed $1.7 billion worldwide. One game, one year, double that.

So why isn't Nintendo scared? Gupta explains that GTA 6 doesn't run on Nintendo hardware, and the audiences barely overlap. Plus, a remake of the best-reviewed game in history gets two full weeks of oxygen before the asteroid lands. "They're the only company in the industry with a fanbase loyal enough to make that bet," he says. And he might be right. Just look at the recent Saturday Night Live sketch that poked fun at the rivalry—the audience cheered louder for Zelda than for the punchlines. As Gupta puts it, "The biggest entertainment event of the decade is a video game launch, and SNL just went where the audience already is."

Meanwhile, other publishers have indeed swerved. Call of Duty retreated to late October, though that's not unusual for the series. Phantom Blade Zero moved from early September to late October, still missing GTA 6 but inching closer. The rest of the schedule crowded into September and October, leaving November a ghost town with just two names on it. We're currently in one of the busiest release periods in recent memory, with Marvel's Wolverine, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, Control Resonant, Silent Hill: Townfall, and The Witcher 3 Remastered all having launched recently, and more like Final Fantasy Resonance and Switch Sports Resort on the way.

Former Nintendo of America PR manager Krysta Yang previously weighed in on the Zelda remake's release date, saying she thought it was "great" because if it launched on the same day as GTA, she'd still be playing GTA. But with two weeks of separation, Ocarina of Time has a chance to shine. As for GTA 6 itself, Rockstar's boss recently said the team has to "forego realism" for the sake of players, noting that "realism can help greatly with immersion, but too much can feel tedious." That's a philosophy that might just apply to release calendars too.

So, will you be diving into Hyrule before heading to Vice City? Or are you saving all your hype for GTA 6? Let us know in the comments!