No Online Play for Pikmin 3, Says Miyamoto

Like Pikmin 2 before it, the recently announced (and E3 previewed) Pikmin 3 will support local multiplayer, but not online multiplayer.

This news comes out of franchise creator himself Shigeru Miyamoto, who mentioned in an interview with IGN that his upcoming Pikmin title for Wii U will not be gracing the Internet tubes with its presence:

“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.

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.

“So what we’ve decided to do is focus on the single-player and local multiplayer aspects, which are really fun. But unfortunately, no online multiplayer for Pikmin 3. But the co-op local multiplayer is really fun.”

The folks at IGN went on to discuss how Pikmin 3 changed (or didn’t rather) on its journey from the Wii to Wii U, but I feel like calling a bluff or two instead. I’ll get down on my knees and worship Miyamoto just about any day, but I find some of his arguments difficult to agree with…or even comprehend.

How many fully-featured RTS games are playable online through a video game system or PC? On that note, how many of them are on consoles alone? If the Wii U has an online infrastructure even somewhat equal to Xbox Live or PSN, why should Miyamoto and his team be worried about it struggling in a space that has plenty of online RTS games that work well?

Would Pikmin 3 work over something like Xbox Live? My guess is yes.

Would Pikmin 3 work over something like PSN? My guess is yes, but that’s banking on the fact that the PSN is actually working the day someone tries it.

It sounds to me like this is a hint that Nintendo’s upcoming online offering might not be as glorious as we might have hoped. If it can’t handle 50-100 little seed dudes being animated server-side, I’m not sure it could handle something as heavy as a First Person Shooter, like Black Ops 2.

Regarding that, I’m not sure if Miyamoto has little confidence in the Internet’s ability to transmit data, or the Wii U’s. I’m starting to think it’s the latter.

Regardless of whether it’d be technically feasible or not, it’s sad to hear that online play will not be a feature in Pikmin 3, but couch co-op should be just as fun as I remember it from Pikmin 2.

Let’s hope so anyway.

[via IGN]