Nintendo dismisses Zelda release date speculation

Nintendo "hopes" to announce more about its new Legend of Zelda GameCube title at E3 in May, the company said today as it dismissed reports that game would be released in October as "speculation".

Last week's GDC trailer for the game, which adopts a more mature graphical approach than its predecessor The Wind Waker (pictured), has re-ignited interest after its first appearance at last year's E3 trade show - and in particular fans are now drawing attention to a US retail posting of a 1st October release date.

Nintendo unsurprisingly distanced itself from the date this morning. In a statement the company said: "We haven't announced any potential release dates for the new Legend of Zelda title. Everything published to date is entirely speculation and we hope to announce more about the game at E3 in May."

This is hardly surprising as retailers regularly add speculative release dates to game postings. Although some turn out to be true, more often than not a prospective release date is just designed to encourage pre-orders.

In Zelda's case, Nintendo has said the game will appear in 2005 on GameCube, but other details - including the full name of the game, the nature of the story and gameplay changes - have yet to be announced.