OoC:
I'm assuming you have all seen this.
http://www.zeldauniverse.net/zelda-news ... ranslated/
Soooo how does this affect HA2/3? Since apparently Link failed in Ocarina of Time in this particular alternate time of Hyrule.

I saw it. I don't like it. That variant of the timeline has too many inconsistencies and contradictions to work out. Sure, I can 'see' 3 timelines, but it'd take a lot of convincing to make me thing that their version works.

Eiji Aonuma is listed as an editor on the book, so it looks like this is the real timeline. That doesn't mean I like it. I don't think Nintendo had this all planned out. I don't think there was such a thing as an official timeline, before now. Before the release of Twilight Princess, Nintendo publicly stated that it was to be a sequel to Wind Waker. However, they must have changed their minds, because when the game was finally released, it was obviously not a sequel to Wind Waker. I don't think Nintendo has ever made these games with the intention of having it all flow as one large story. I think the games were all meant to stand apart, like Final Fantasy, with a few games being related to each other (like ST, PH, WW and OoT are clearly related) but for the most part, they were supposed to be unrelated to each other.
But because of the Demands of the Fans, Nintendo has been forced to put them all together into one solid story, and I think the "link failed" option was Nintendo's cop-out for making a story that wasn't meant to flow together, flow together.

OOC: They never said TP was a sequel to WW, they said it was a sequel to MM/OOT.

I do think they didn't always have a timeline in mind; of course they didn't at the beginning. It's probably something that developed over time, and with recent games they've been trying to get more specific with the legends and include the first few games. I wish everyone would stop complaining.