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Yes, Reggie Knows How Much You Want Mother 3 and Animal Crossing for Switch
“No promises, no commitments one way or the other, but we're aware.”
After Nintendo made all of its E3 announcements this year, you’re not alone if you were wondering about the fate of your favorite franchise. From Animal Crossing to Mother 3 and even Pikmin, a lot of fans took to Twitter to lament the absence of a few Nintendo series, and it hasn’t escaped Nintendo’s attention.
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When we have something to announce, we will.
“When we have something to announce, we will,” Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told IGN at E3.
“Fill in the blank of your favorite franchise. Our mentality will be we'll announce information close to its launch date versus teasing people for years on end.”
Reggie had a similar response regarding a potential Western release for Mother 3, a game we’ve asked him about for the last several years and followed years of release rumors to no avail.
“Again, we know, I know there's a fan base for that title. All I could say is we're aware,” he said. “It's something that we always think about in terms of where there are opportunities to reintroduce IP to fans, to do it in a way that builds new fans, we're certainly aware. No promises, no commitments one way or the other, but we're aware.”
"I did see a lot of internet memes with sad faces from the Animal Crossing group,” Fils-Aime admitted, but also said the success of Animal Crossing Pocket Camp bodes well for the success of the eventual next installment in that franchise.
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I did see a lot of internet memes with sad faces from the Animal Crossing group.
"We see tremendous opportunity in using the mobile platform to introduce IP to consumers who may not be as familiar. Animal Crossing is a great example. Tremendous interaction with Pocket Camp," he said. "Fans are really enjoying that experience. We're introducing it to new consumers. That bodes well for whenever the next Animal Crossing might come."
He also told us that he was asked about Mother 3 many times during the course of the show, including at the theater where the Splatoon 2 tournament and Smash Bros. invitational were held.
“It's interesting. I show up at the Belasco [theater] and one fan is saying ‘Hi, Reggie!’ and another is saying ‘where's Mother 3?’”
This echoes answers Nintendo has given in the past. At E3, Nintendo's Bill Trinen explained the absence of Metroid Prime 4 and the core Pokemon RPG, telling us, “We want to show stuff when we think it's ready to show. Obviously it's not like we've stopped working on any of the things we talked about last year, that stuff's all being worked on.”
As for Mother 3, Nintendo has kept fans waiting so long for an announcement that they’re actually writing a book about it, but you'll at least be able to see main character Lucas in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate this December.
For much more from our conversation with Fils-Aime at E3, read about how Nintendo feels about all the leaks before this year’s E3 and why Nintendo feels Switch Online is the successor to Virtual Console.
Andrew is IGN’s executive editor of news and will probably cry the day Mother 3 finally comes out in the west. You can find him rambling about Persona and cute animals on Twitter.