- In milestone, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- In a first, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- Bangladeshi Hindus shrug off attack worries to celebrate festival
- Ubisoft fears assassin's hit over falling sales
- Vietnam, China hold talks on calming South China Sea tensions
- SpaceX will try to 'catch' giant Starship rocket shortly before landing
- Japan's former empress Michiko discharged after surgery: reports
- Japan's former empress Michiko discharged after surgey: reports
- 'Little Gregory' murder haunts France 40 years on
- Tariffs, tax cuts, energy: What is in Trump's economic plan?
- Amazon wants to be everything to everyone
- Jewish school in Canada hit by gunfire for second time
- With medical report Harris seeks to play health card against Trump
- China-EU EV tariff talks in Brussels end with 'major differences': Beijing
- Buried Nazi past haunts Athens on liberation anniversary
- Harris to release medical report confirming fitness for presidency: campaign
- Nobel prize a timely reminder, Hiroshima locals say
- China offers $325 bn in fiscal stimulus for ailing economy
- Small Quebec company dominates one part of NHL hockey: jerseys
- Boeing to cut 10% of workforce as it sees big Q3 loss
- Want to film in Paris? No sexism allowed
- US, European markets rise as investors weigh rates, earnings
- In Colombia, children trade plastic waste for school supplies
- JPMorgan Chase profits top estimates, bank sees 'resilient' US economy
- Little progress at key meet ahead of COP29 climate summit
- 'Party atmosphere': Skygazers treated to another aurora show
- Kyrgyzstan opens rare probe into glacier destruction
- European Mediterranean states discuss Middle East, migration
- Thunberg leads pro-Palestinian, climate protest in Milan
- Stock markets diverge before China weekend briefing
- EU questions shopping app Temu over illegal products risk
- Han Kang's books sell out in South Korea after Nobel win
- Shanghai markets sink ahead of briefing on mixed day for Asia
- Investors, analysts eye bigger China stimulus at Saturday briefing
- Musk unveils robotaxi, pledges it 'before 2027'
- At least 11 dead in Florida but Hurricane Milton not as bad as feared
- Asian markets mixed after Wall St drop, Shanghai dips before briefing
- Automaker Stellantis says CEO will retire in 2026
- Musk's promised robotaxi unveil delayed
- On US coast, wind power foes embrace 'Save the Whales' argument
- At least 10 dead in Florida after Hurricane Milton spawns tornadoes
- Internet Archive reels from 'catastrophic' cyberattack, data breach
- Wall Street stocks retreat from records on US inflation data
- Israel strikes central Beirut, killing 22
- Solar storm could impact US hurricane recovery efforts: agency
- Delta eyes Election Day travel pullback as profits climb
- Florida battered by hurricane, floods but spared 'worst-case scenario'
- UK's William and Kate in first joint public engagement since cancer treatment
- Over 200 women in legal talks with Harrods over Fayed abuse claims
- A very stiff breeze: BBC says sorry for 20,000 kph wind forecast
The long wait is over: New 'Zelda' hits shelves
A six-year wait came to an end for "Zelda" fans across the world on Friday as Nintendo released the long-awaited next instalment of its 40-year-old gaming saga.
The game featuring the exploits of Princess Zelda and the elf-like warrior Link has sold 125 million copies worldwide since its first edition in 1986.
It helped forge "open world" games where the player is free to roam in virtual landscapes -- an idea later taken up by games from "Grand Theft Auto" to "Skyrim".
But its main challenge this year will be to boost the figures for the Japanese gaming giant and prolong the life of its Switch console, which experts say is in its dotage after seven years on the shelves.
The company will release "Tears of the Kingdom" worldwide, with clips circulating on the internet already racking up millions of views and generating feverish excitement among fans.
The game "will be by far the biggest contributor to Nintendo's sales this year", said Serkan Toto, an analyst at Kantan Games.
Yet the franchise's 1980's launch was something of a gamble for a company then best known for "Donkey Kong" and "Super Mario Bros."
- 'Pioneer' -
The first episode, "The Legend of Zelda", plunged gamers into an unknown universe largely without instructions.
Creator Shigeru Miyamoto, who also gave life to Mario, was inspired by his childhood explorations of the Japanese countryside to offer a landscape of forests, lakes, caves and mountains.
"The scale of the game was huge at a time when most games were finished in an hour or two," said Kiyoshi Tane, an author specialising in the history of video games.
"The map was designed with a real emphasis on exploration, so it was something of a pioneer of what open-world games would become."
The first Zelda hit the market only a few months after "Super Mario Bros", but the two games were far apart on the gaming spectrum.
While Mario runs from left to right through various platforms, Zelda "encouraged the player to explore, discover and map its world and take on its challenges", said Mark Brown, who analyses game design on his YouTube channel.
The game was a smash hit from the start, and for the next two decades, it pushed the boundaries of game design.
The 1998 edition "Ocarina of Time" pioneered a system that allowed gamers to aim properly in 3D.
Yet sales of the game had hit the skids by the turn of the 2010s.
- 'High bar' -
Nintendo wanted to expand the game's appeal but only managed to create editions that satisfied nobody.
Hardcore fans drifted away and its popularity waned.
"The development team had a sense of crisis," Katsuhiko Hayashi, representative for Famitsu Group, which publishes industry magazine Famitsu, told AFP.
The designers rethought the basics of the game, eventually creating 2017's "Breath of the Wild".
It was launched alongside the Switch console and has since become the best-selling edition of Zelda.
"This game set a high bar for the open-world action-adventure genre, and Zelda is still at the top," said Hayashi.
Zelda has become something of a "bible" for other developers, he added.
But despite its success and the enduring popularity of Nintendo's other franchises -- demonstrated by this year's smash hit "Super Mario Bros. Movie" -- the firm released a gloomy outlook on Tuesday.
The company forecast a 21 percent drop in net profit compared with last year.
The prediction makes the Zelda release vital for the company.
Charles-Louis Planade, an analyst at Midcap Partners, reckons it could become "the best-selling game in history".
"It's a game that can approach $1 billion in revenue, which is very significant for a company that makes a turnover of just over $10 billion per year," he told AFP.
C.Smith--CPN