The announcement that Pikmin 3 Deluxe, a port of the 2013 Wii U title, will be making its way to the Nintendo Switch is pretty exciting. The real-time strategy series hasn't seen a new release since 2017's Hey! Pikmin for the Nintendo 3DS, and fans have long hoped that the hybrid console's popularity could give the franchise the boost it deserves. Plus, with many fans left disappointed last month's Nintendo Direct Mini, which focused on third-party announcements rather than providing news on any first-party titles, the surprise reveal is a nice indication that there will be Switch games to look forward to this year.
However, while the return of Pikmin is great, it does revive questions about a long-awaited title: Pikmin 4. The next numbered Pikmin game was announced way back in 2015 by legendary game designer and series creator Shigeru Miyamoto. However, in the five years since, we've heard next to nothing about the title. So what happened?
It's easy to forget that Pikmin 4 was even said to be in the works. Miyamoto revealed the title rather suddenly during an interview back when the Wii U was struggling and the Nintendo Switch was the NX, and a lot has changed since then. More than just announcing it, though, Miyamoto claimed the title was "very close to completion," something that makes the past half-decade of near silence even more confusing.
Since Hey! Pikmin was both announced and launched in the time since Pikmin 4's announcement, some have speculated that the 3DS game was actually Pikmin 4 with a new name. However, this is unlikely. Hey! Pikmin was developed by Arzest rather than in-house at Nintendo EAD like the other Pikmin games. Plus, one of the only updates we've gotten on Pikmin 4 came a month before Hey! Pikmin's launch and confirmed that the mysterious title was still in development.
With little information on the title and few updates over the past five years, it's hard to say what actually happened to Pikmin 4. What seems most likely is that, despite what Miyamoto indicated, the game hit production issues. A Metroid Prime 4-like development reset is possible, and considering the Pikmin series is not nearly as well-known as Metroid, the lack of a public announcement regarding this would be unsurprising.
Though we still don't know how Pikmin 4 is going (or if it's even still in development at all), fans have a new reason to be hopeful following the Pikmin 3 Deluxe announcement. Nintendo could be using it to gauge interest in the series or introduce new fans to it before announcing the sequel. And considering the Switch's sales numbers in comparison to Pikmin 3's original home, the port is going to reach a much larger audience. Many gamers, even Nintendo fans, have had little to no interaction with the series up to now excluding (or perhaps including) Olimar's presence in Super Smash Bros. If successful, Pikmin 3 Deluxe could be the boost the series needs, encouraging Nintendo to keep Pikmin 4 from becoming the next Mother 3.