In news that managed to catch a lot of gamers off guard, "Pikmin 4" is apparently nearly complete.

Relatively, little has actually been said about the game itself even just being in development, let alone being nearly complete. 

As surprising as the news may be, it is also very likely true, considering it was none other than Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto who confirmed the news himself to Eurogamer.

Miyamoto's interview with the website actually took place back in July, meaning "Pikmin 4" is likely more further along now, according to Techno Buffalo.

According to Miyamoto, the team working on "Pikmin 4" has been hard at work on the next installment of the franchise ever since the last entry came out, so maybe the news of it being nearly complete should not be all that surprising.

The release patterns for "Pikmin" games are hardly constant however, as the original game came out back in Oct. 2001. The next game in the franchise then released a little under three years later in April 2004, and then it was a long, nine-year wait before the third game in the series was launched in July 2013.

The wait this time around could be shorter than any turnaround in the history of the franchise; although with no official release date for "Pikmin 4" actually given, there's no way to know how close to being released it actually is.

Both "Pikmin" and "Pikmin 2" were released on the Nintendo GameCube when they first came out, with the third installment from the franchise then makings its way to the Wii U.

As for "Pikmin 4," Miyamoto did not comment on which platform the new game may debut on, although there is a chance it could be coming out for Nintendo's rumored NX console. The console itself is already reportedly in development and more details about it are expected to come out by next year.