I am far less optimistic about the sales of this franchise. While the quality of the first two titles is undeniable, the sales they generated are abysmal for first-party Nintendo titles.
Additionally, the original Pikmin was a launch title and it was only able to generate 1.6 million in sales. And the sequel only showed continued interest from the Japanese market, as the other market sales figures were cut in half, resulting in total sales of just over 1 million by the figures on this site.
A third Pikmin will benefit from a much larger userbase. But unless Nintendo really updates the game to be more accessible and take advantage of the Wii's capabilities, I can't see the sales go much past 2 million.
That being said, I can't wait to see what Nintendo is doing with this franchise.
