Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on PC is a 'beautiful' 60fps reality

Nintendo is easily more protective of its exclusive franchises than PlayStation and Xbox.

While it’s fair to say that all three companies value the power of an exclusive, PlayStation and Xbox have both dabbled in venturing away from that model.

PlayStation went through a phase of launching its games on PC after a delay, while Xbox has opted for cross-platform releases as of late, with both companies seemingly now u-turning those decisions.

Nintendo, on the other hand, has never been tempted to publish the likes of Pokémon or The Legend of Zelda on rival platforms.

The Legend of Zelda running on PC is likely never to be an official reality; it has been made possible, though, thanks to the hard work of fans.

The ever-reliable digital wizard that is YouTuber Digital Dreams has shown what The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom looks like running on a PC.

Digital Dreams has the game running in 8K at 60fps using an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090.

They've even gone as far as modding the game to add ray-tracing and boosted ultra HD effects.

You can take a look at the technical showcase below.

As for how Digital Dreams possibly got The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom running on PC, they will have had to make use of an emulator.

Precisely which emulator is not specified, but Eden is a popular option for Switch to PC.

As a reminder, you’ll need to own a valid Nintendo Switch copy of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom if you want to attempt emulation because making use of online files is piracy.

Digital Dreams’ PC take on The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is perhaps a little too modded in areas, with ray-traced shadows particularly being heavy on the eye.

For the most part, the game looks brilliant, really benefiting from that framerate boost.

“That’s beautiful,” remarked one viewer, while another added, “This looks f’n amazing.”

“It looks lush and vibrant,” said another fan.

You can actually download Digital Dreams’ preset from the video’s description if you do want to mod a game of your choice in their usual hyper-realistic style.

READ MORE: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake final build dropped online for free

Let’s hope Nintendo’s Ocarina of Time remake impresses long-time fans too

This fan project is a nice distraction amid the wait for the next big Zelda release, Nintendo’s high-profile remake of Ocarina of Time.

Ocarina of Time is one of the greatest games of all time, so you can understand why Nintendo wants to bring this 1998 classic to modern audiences.

Then again, when the original game boasts a Metacritic score of 99, how do you approach remaking perfection?

The remake will certainly reveal whether Ocarina of Time was so brilliant because of the era it was created within, or whether it still stands up with modern presentation.

The game is due to launch in the remainder of 2026.

Nintendo hasn’t specified anything beyond that, but it’ll probably be the company’s big holiday headliner, going head-to-head with Grand Theft Auto VI in the October or November window.