While yesterday’s Nintendo Press Conference failed to excite people who actually play games, Miyamoto is certainly making up for the lack of new announcements (Mario Kart doesn’t count) today with his interview with IGN. I’ve been wondering where all the Animal Crossing news has ran off to in the past several months, but Miyamoto put my growing worries to rest:

The Animal Crossing team has been very busy working on a variety of different projects. Actually, the Mii Channel was put together by the director of the most recent Animal Crossing game. His name is Mr. Nogami. Recently he said he really wants to get back to work on Animal Crossing again, so hopefully we’ll be able to show something to people before too long.

Thank. You. Hopefully this “before too long” is actually just a short wait, because this game is going to be huge. I mean that quite literally, since I’m hoping the Animal Crossing world should greatly increase in size from the minuscule town in the previous installments. As for Pikmin on the Wii? Miyamoto hits a grand slam once again:

I certainly don’t think we’ve seen the last of Pikmin. I definitely would like to do something with them, and I think the Wii interface in particular is very well suited to that franchise.

Sure, Galaxy and Brawl are going to be amazing, but I’ve always looked forward to a next generation Animal Crossing that could really take advantage of a stellar online network. Please Nintendo, no friend codes for this one. You can do it!

IGN- Animal Crossing
IGN- Pikmin