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All Articles: Pikmin 4
Pikmin 4 is “hard to fit” into Nintendo’s list of priorities, but they haven’t forgotten about it
Pikmin 4 has been a tricky game to pin down. First announced in 2014 as part of a Shareholder Q&A, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto would go on to tell the media that it was “very close to completion” in September 2015. So what happened to it? In the ten months since, we’ve heard nothing about the next entry in the Pikmin franchise.
Thankfully, Game Rant tracked down Mr. Miyamoto at this year’s E3 Expo to ask him about Pikmin 4. Being his usual candid self, the famed developer confirmed the game is still in development, however, he also admitted that Nintendo has been having trouble fitting into their schedule:
“Yes, you are right, and we’re working on [Pikmin 4]. So, you know, when we’re in development we have to create a list of priorities and it has been hard to kind of fit that into that list, but we’re hopefully starting to see that on the list now.”
Pikmin 4 was originally announced for the Wii U, but with Nintendo’s NX console scheduled to launch in March 2017, it’s possible that Pikmin 4’s placement on the priority list could be a sign the game is moving to the new console. Nintendo has promised to reveal a bit more about the NX this Fall, but a one-two punch of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Pikmin 4 would certainly help the new platform make a name for itself.
A Day-By-Day Guide to All of 2016’s New Video Games (April – September)
The Spring and Summer months are currently less dense with new releases than the first three months of the year, but that should change fairly soon, especially since publishers have staked a claim to every week from the beginning of April to the end of June with at least one big new release dropping every seven days.
Are you ready? Because here… we… go… (more…)
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Shigeru Miyamoto says Pikmin 4 is “very close to completion”
Nintendo (more specifically, series creator Shigeru Miyamoto) first revealed the existence of Pikmin 4 nearly a year ago during a Shareholders Q&A. Since then, the publisher has remained tight-lipped about the Wii U sequel, preferring to focus on this Fall’s major releases like Super Mario Maker, Star Fox Zero, and Xenoblade Chronicles X.
Today, the prolific developer returned with another Pikmin proclamation, this time revealing that development on the game is almost finished. “It’s actually very close to completion,” Miyamoto told Eurogamer. “Pikmin teams are always working on the next one.” Miyamoto’s claim was later substantiated by Nintendo in a separate statement.
Presumably, a splashy official announcement for Pikmin 4 will happen very soon.
Shigeru Miyamoto confirms that Pikmin 4 is in development
Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that Pikmin 4 is in development during a recent shareholders Q&A session. In answering a question about development costs, the famed developer began to discuss the recently released Pikmin short films he created as well as the demo version and downloadable content for Pikmin 3. Miyamoto said that all of this bonus content is meant to be a way to prepare consumers for a planned Pikmin 4:
If I am allowed to do a little bit of PR here, we released a series of short films called Pikmin Short Movies on October 25 at the Tokyo International Film Festival. […] At the same time, we have also prepared a demo version of Pikmin 3 so anyone who hasn’t played Pikmin can experience its unique joy. Continually launching campaigns after the release of software will lay the groundwork for the next iteration of Pikmin in the future. And needless to say, we want it to be one of the motivations for potential consumers to purchase Wii U.
Because of the Wii-to-Wii U transition, Pikmin 3 took five years to go from announcement to release. Hopefully, launching Pikmin 4 on the Wii U means that the fourth entry in the franchise won’t spend so long in development.