By Kosaku Narioka

Nintendo Co. shares fell sharply Wednesday morning after the Japanese videogame maker announced a delay to the release of the latest "Legend of Zelda" game.

The shares were last 5.4% lower at 63,370 yen ($515.65) after falling as much as 5.5% earlier.

Nintendo said late Tuesday that it planned to release the sequel to the popular action-adventure game "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" in the spring of 2023. Nintendo had previously said it was aiming to start selling the game in 2022.

Eiji Aonuma, producer of the "Legend of Zelda" series, said in a video message posted on an official Nintendo Twitter account that the company decided to extend the development time and that the team is working diligently on the game.

Nintendo has sold more than 25.8 million copies of "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild."

Nintendo shares were lower also as the stock traded ex-dividend. The Nikkei Stock Average was recently down 1.3% at 27893.92.


Write to Kosaku Narioka at kosaku.narioka@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-29-22 2302ET