Chibi-Robo is among one of Nintendo's most niche franchises, but a devoted fanbase continues to exist many years after the original release on Nintendo GameCube. The status of the franchise remains shrouded in mystery, leaving fans to wonder about the future of Chibi-Robo. Chibi-Robo director Kenichi Nishi shed some light about the series and its future in a new interview at Time Extension.
Many of game's original staff no longer work at Skip Ltd, which is the development studio behind the Chibi-Robo series. During development of the original GameCube entry, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto served as producer and helped keep the project alive until the full launch. Various sequels would spawn on Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS, but the series did not capture adequate sales and commercial success to continue after the release of Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash in 2015. Since then, various developers from Skip moved on to pursue other ventures in the gaming industry.
Kenichi Nishi founded Skip, but he was working on a separate project for quite some time during his tenure at the company. Most of the staff have moved on to other companies in the gaming industry, but some remaining staff is still working directly with him. Nishi's relationship with former employees is amicable, and he still sees some of them sporadically. The developer believes the staff wanted to pursue work and opportunities outside of Skip, leading to many of the original Chibi-Robo developers leaving together.
Nishi admits that he doesn't know if Chibi-Robo will ever return with a new game. However, Nishi is interested in making a sequel if the timing and opportunity is right. The developer continues to be fascinated with the Chibi-Robo character to this day, but there's nothing currently in the works for the Chibi-Robo series. For the foreseeable future, Chibi-Robo appears to be a dormant Nintendo series.
Chibi-Robo never received the commercial success compared to prominent Nintendo franchises such as Kirby, The Legend of Zelda, and Super Mario. Although Chibi-Robo for Nintendo GameCube was generally well-received by players and reviewers, the Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS successors did not recapture the essence of the original. As a result, sales for each subsequent title waned until Nintendo deemed the series would not continue further.
Fortunately, Nishi is still optimistic about Chibi-Robo and hopes the series returns someday. Chibi-Robo appears unlikely to receive a sequel for Nintendo Switch, but the possibility remains for classic Nintendo games to return. Titles such as Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp shows that Nintendo may consider reviving classic franchises if the opportunity is right.
Source: Time Extension