Pikmin 3 won’t include online multiplayer options

Pikmin 3 was quite possibly the least surprising announcement to come out of Nintendo’s E3 offerings, as we’d known it was in the works for quite a while now. In an interview with IGN, Shigeru Miyamoto has discussed some details regarding the eagerly anticipated sequel including how multiplayer would work. We all thought there would be, judging by the four Olimar-like characters appearing during the gameplay footage, but we didn’t know exactly how it would work.

This is where things get a little bit shaky and admiteddly a little bit disappointing. Pikmin 3 will not contain any online multiplayer modes, and instead rely on local co-operative modes for it’s multiplayer component which Miyamoto assures us is “really fun”.

The reason? Apparently it’s just “too difficult” to sync the movements of all the individual Pikmin across what we assume would be four players across an internet connection across such a large distance. While this is a nice confirmation that the environments will be large – we can’t help but think one of Nintendo’s first part titles that will be launching for the Wii U lacking this functionality might be a little worrisome. But of course it’s much too early to tell.

What do you think of Pikmin 3’s lack of online multiplayer? Will you write off this launch title now or will you still be picking it up? Let us know in the comments.