Nintendo Direct, the Japanese company's news outlet, recently announced that the long-awaited Pikmin 3 has been delayed from the 'launch window' to Q2 of 2013. Basically, the sequel was originally set to release in the vague span of time between November 18, 2012 and March 31, 2013, but has now been pushed back to an equally unspecific range of April to June, 2013.
The last time the franchise saw the light of day was in 2004 on the Gamecube. Fans of the beloved franchise were left to speculate about the future of Captain Olimar and his kin for an entire console generation, until Nintendo at last validated their desires with an E3 2012 announcement of Pikmin 3 for the Wii U. The new installment will usher in HD visuals to the series for the first time alongside new types of Pikmin.
Legendary developer Shigeru Miyamoto explains the game's notable omission of online multiplayer.
"So in the case of Mario Kart, we did have online multiplayer, and that's something that...You have to be very careful that you don't drop frames as you're trying to sync up with other players over what could be a very great physical distance, over the Internet,"
He continues, "But in the situation of Pikmin, for example, since you would have lots of individual, small creatures, the Pikmin, whose every movement and location is going to be really important in the game, it would be very difficult to sync up over an Internet connection." Shigeru Miyamoto