'Zelda: Breath of the Wild' new trailer, release date and everything else we know so far

Nintendo revealed a gorgeous new trailer for the insanely anticipated The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Thursday night at the Game Awards.

The newest entry in the Zelda universe is an expansive open-world game, a first for the series. The new trailer, titled "Life in the Ruins," gives us our best look yet at some of the huge spaces players will explore in Zelda: BOTW.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild trailer: Can it compete with other open-world epics?

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild steps into the open-world game genre at a time when expectations are extremely high. Nintendo's new game will likely be compared to titles like Grand Theft Auto V, one of (if not the best) open-world games ever made.

GTA V has established just how huge a contiguous open-world map can be. The pure size of the map in Zelda BOTW will play a huge role in whether or not it succeeds as an open-world game. Prior to the new trailer's reveal, we hadn't seen much of what the free exploration-type areas in Breath of the Wild really looked like.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild new trailer is about epic scale

The new trailer, however, shows off fresh design concepts and previews for some of the massive spaces Zelda fans will explore in Breath of the Wild. Forests, villages and a post-apocalyptic-looking field of blackened stone are three of the visions offered in the latest video.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild release date: Will it be a Nintendo Switch launch game?

A card at the end of the trailer advertises the platforms on which Breath of the Wild will appear, without offering any other details. The release date for the upcoming Zelda game has been a topic mired in rumor and controversy. For now, all we can do is speculate as to when Breath of the Wild will be released for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U.

Not knowing when Breath of the Wild will be released on any platform at all is frustrating enough for hardcore Zelda fans. Not knowing whether it will be released first on the Nintendo Switch or Wii U adds a whole new wrinkle to their worries, because one version might be much better than the other.

If the Nintendo Switch is significantly more powerful than the Wii U, the Switch version of this new Zelda game could potentially look a lot better than it does on the Wii U. In that case, waiting for the Nintendo Switch release will make sense for many players.

If you're a hardcore Zelda fan, however, passing up on the Wii U version if it's released first may be impossible if you also have no idea when the Nintendo Switch version will be released. In which case, said hardcore Zelda fan may wind up buying the game twice if the Nintendo Switch version is clearly superior.

More Zelda: Breath of the Wild news and rumors from Mic:

Hungry for more Legend of Zelda details? Check out this earlier trailer for Zelda BOTW and then read up on why the game's release date may not arrive until long after the Nintendo Switch has already launched.