Nintendo's Eiji Aonuma shares his thoughts on Zelda: Breath of the Wild winning Game Awards 2017 Game of the Year, also talks motorcycle DLC

Famitsu magazine caught up with Eiji Aonuma to, of course, talk about The Legend of Zelda! In the snippets below, translated by NintendoEverything, you can see Aonuma's thoughts on Breath of the Wild winning Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2017, as well as Link getting a motorcycle in the Champions' Ballad DLC.

Famitsu: We saw you receiving the Game Awards prize during the live stream, but you were in a situation where you wouldn’t know whether you would win it or not, weren’t you?

Aonuma: That’s right. When I was sitting at the awards ceremony, there were more and more foreign titles being mentioned… I somehow became discouraged, thinking it might be difficult at all for a Japanese game to win this. And as the event was about to close, I was talking to Fujibayashi saying, “Let’s prepare to leave.” And just as I underestimated it, the Game of the Year announcement came, and my head went completely blank. I stood up hugging Fujibayashi, but at that time I was already completely unconscious. I stood on the stage while still being in that situation, and the first words that came from me were “Thank you America!” Are you a middle schooler? [referring to himself at the awards ceremony] (laughs).

Famitsu: Having a motorcycle appear in that world is so shocking.

Aonuma: Regarding that motorcycle, just before the first DLC was released, I proposed to the development team “Couldn’t we make a motorcycle?”, but they were greatly opposed to it. They said, “A motorcycle in that world wouldn’t make any sense!” I also ride a motorcycle in the real world, and I said it would feel good if we could also ride one in that world too… While it kept getting rejected, as development progressed on, there were talks that we “really want to have something impactful at the end.” And then somebody nonchalantly said, “Perhaps the motorcycle then…” so I reacted “What now, you all really wanted to do it, don’t you!?” (laughs)

The development for the motorcycle started from there, and for refueling the motorcycle we naturally decided to put materials inside just like cooking. It’s not limited to just the motorcycle, but when something gets decided, the staff works on it with huge amount of enthusiasm, so they can be relied upon.