Legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo regrets not being able to release Pikmin 3 as a launch title for the Wii U.
In an interview with TIME, Miyamoto discusses the difficulties that prevented Pikmin 3 from being able to be available when the Wii U launched, citing the process of figuring out the best way to use the new technology that drew away game development resources.
"From my perspective, I think ideally it would have been nice if we'd been able to release Pikmin 3 closer to launch, but the Wii U - though it shares the Wii name - is obviously a brand new system, with new chips and graphical capabilities. It can do a lot more, and in the process of developing a lot of the features and functionality, the resources required to best utilize those features drew on some of the same resources that might have been spent developing games, thus we weren't able to bring quite as robust a lineup initially," Miyamoto said.
Pikmin 3 still has yet to be released, so we do not know how the game will bring out the true potential of the Wii U quite yet. Miyamoto has high hopes for the system as Nintendo moves forward.
"...we still have new things to learn about how to leverage the features and functionalities of Wii U in ways that create fun and interesting new ways to play, including new gameplay systems. As we become even more familiar with the hardware, we'll be able to do more from a software standpoint. That's an area we're currently devoting resources to," Miyamoto said.
While many are disappointed that Pikmin 3 was not a launch title for the Wii U, or even released in general for that matter, if it shows off the Wii U's capabilities as Miyamoto thinks it should, then it could be a major boon to Nintendo and the Wii U, which faces a tough battle ahead of it.