According to Insider-Gaming.com, Ubisoft Milan, the Italian team behind the two Mario + Rabbids games, had ambitious plan for a Zelda spin-off, code-named "Goliath". At first this game was supposed to have its own protagonist, but this later evolved into a playable Ganondorf, at the request of Nintendo.
After the launch of Sparks of Hope in October 2022, they have worked on a pitch over the winter, and then they had until the end of 2023 to develop a prototype. But this prototype ultimately got rejected by Nintendo and their collaboration cooled down afterwards, which led to the unfortunate disbanding of the development team.
This story reminds me of the various spin-off ideas that Retro Studio pitched to Nintendo over the years, like the Sheik game, or Heroes of Hyrule. And I'm sure Nintendo had their reasons to dismiss all of them, where I'm personally happy with how protective they have been with the IP for the past 30 years.
Of all the third party collaborations around Zelda, the partnership with Capcom still remains the best. It has produced four mainline Zelda titles, three of which are considered to be very good entries. Some of the developers from the dissolved Flagship team even still work on Zelda today, first and foremost Hidemaro Fujibayashi.
And even though Koei Tecmo means shady business, the Hyrule Warriors games have been fantastic, where this probably will continue to be a series of its own. The odd one out is Cadence of Hyrule, where Nintendo allowed a small indie studio, Brace Yourself Games, to work on the IP, but this has turned out pretty good as well.
Sadly, we don't really know any specifics about this prototype. A Ganondorf game sounds awesome on paper and can be found on many fan wish lists, but the same goes for a Sheik game. And that turned out to be Wii Sports swordplay against wolves, making Link's Crossbow Training look sophisticated in comparison.
It doesn't mean we won't ever get a game where you primarily play as Ganondorf – Nintendo is clearly interested in the idea. It probably just won't be made by Ubisoft... And I'm okay with that.
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