The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has gone gold

Nintendo's latest entry in its beloved action-adventure fantasy franchise, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, has gone gold. The long-awaited news was revealed via Twitter by developer Yasuyuki Honne who attended the game's wrap party.

The party was attended by the game's developers as well as legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto, according to the photo posted by Honne. In game development, "going gold" means the main development has been completed and the title is ready to be sent for disc manufacturing.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was first announced back in 2013 as a title for the Wii U that would "rethink the conventions of Zelda."

The first footage from the game was unveiled 18 months later at Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2014. The game then went dark, with no significant news until 2016.

The Japanese gaming giant announced in April 2016 that the game would be delayed until 2017 "because the developers need more time to polish the game."

The company also confirmed that the title would be released for the Wii U and Nintendo Switch, then called Nintendo NX.

Nintendo gave the game its full reveal and official title at E3 2016.

Miyamoto had said last year that the game took longer to develop in part due to technical challenges as well as the decision to release for both the Wii U and Switch. Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma also recently revealed that the game's massive size and coordination within the development team were also factors as well.

"One of the major problems we faced on a game of this size was actually coordinating everything, and by that I mean creating this huge open world by lots of development staff," Aonuma said. "Each individual person might be working on just one part of that world, but if they're working without a broader context, within isolation, then they might think, 'I'm creating this particular area or feature or object.'

"But if they don't know how that fits into the broader world and context of the game, things won't tie together very well."

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime recently confirmed that Breath of the Wild will be Nintendo's last first-party title for the Wii U.

Breath of the Wild is set in a massive, visually stunning open world and is a significant departure from the previous entries in the beloved Zelda series with new survival features and greater depth of options in terms of combat.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is set to release on 3 March 2017 for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U.