There’s only one reason why this “remake” got made: because it’s the cheapest to produce. The Cell-Shading graphics can be easily upscaled and interpolated. Just play the original game on a GameCube emulator that allows HD upscaling. You won’t notice any difference from the remake. The original game looks great and sharp in HD without any effort whatsoever. The only thing Nintendo did was adding some new lighting effects. Notice how Aonuma only talks about the lighting in his developer video. Because that’s the only thing they did!
With a game like Twilight Princess or Metroid Prime they would need to make lots of new models and textures, but not with the Wind Waker. There they just had to upscale the graphics and add a few bloom effects. Anyone with little knowledge about computer graphics could have done that. And that’s the only reason why they chose this “remake” over any other. It’s nice and lazy. You can’t even call this a remake. It’s a simple port with some added lighting effects.
Aonuma now even commented that they didn’t want to add any content (like new dungeons, a hard mode or whatever), because they wanted to stay true to the GameCube. The only thing they did change is the sail that makes you go faster and the Miiverse bottles. Just listen to his comments:
“If it felt like there were maybe too few dungeons then I feel that what was wrong with the GameCube version was the pacing.”
Or maybe it felt like that because there were too few dungeons? It’s a joke. They were just extremely lazy and try to find excuses. And THIS is what kept the Zelda team busy for one and half years? They got to be kidding. This is just IN YOUR FACE lazy.
I agree completely with your email. Porting Wind Waker is easy.
But there is one problem. You are assuming finances are behind the decision. Look at the other Wii U software. No one can say finances are behind the decision to make Pikmin 3, or 3d World or the lack of VC games.
Businessmen aren’t automatons or puppets of financial statements. They have biases and interests just like everyone else. The Zelda Team is heavily biased to Wind Waker and its art style. It’s interesting to note that art style was never an issue until Wind Waker.
I think trying to understand Nintendo’s biases and interests explains more about their business strategy (or lack of it) today than the Blue Ocean Strategy or disruption did in Generation 7. I don’t think Nintendo went stereoscopic 3d for their handheld because of a strategy but because they have such a huge bias towards ‘omg 3d’ that it rationalized their obsession into what appeared to be a business strategy.
In the same way, Kutaragi’s biases screwed up the PS3. But in his mind, he rationalized it as a brilliant business strategy. Or in another example, I’m sure Sakamoto rationalized the Metroid: Other M direction as a great business strategy.
One thing I have learned is that great business strategies almost always mean doing things you don’t want to do. When I see people enjoying their job too much or getting too high on their ego, it is a sure sign that the fall is about the come.