they weren't in this game will they bee in the sequel?

As far as I know, there's no information regarding the 5th game at this time. I don't care so much about Iris, but I'd really like to see Maya and Pearl again. Edgeworth, eh. The game felt so empty without Maya and Pearl there, though. I really hope to see them in the next game.

You should maybe spoiler tag your post, free2793

I agree, I really hope the 5th game explains what happened to them (mainly Maya, Pearl, and Edgeworth.) Edgeworth was my favorite character in the series, so I can't say I wasn't disappointed with not seeing him in this one.

My Guess would be Edgeworth is overseas, studying about science or the other law systems, I forgot what he was studying for but I know they said he was overseas. Maya and Pearl, I would say are at the Spirit Medium place. But that's what I think.

*Yeah, spoilers for AJ and T&T here.*

Well, I personally hope they don't appear in the next game. In my opinion, Phoenix shoved Apollo into the spotlight, and this really reduced the enjoyment of the game to me. If they appear in the 5th or 6th game, I hope that they are minor roles, and they don't become a bigger role than Apollo was, and overshadow him in his own game. But I think that we can figure out where some of these characters are.
For instance-

Maya- At the end of Trials & Tribulations, considering that she is now the master of Kurain, she discusses having to balance her job at Wright & Co., and being the Master. So it's quite likely that she's just at Kurain Village.

Edgeworth: Most likely he went back to studying overseas, in my opinion, it's likely he probably keeps an eye on Phoenix.

One final thing you have to keep in mind is that just because we don't see them, doesn't mean they aren't a part of Nick's life. It's quite likely that since the game is from Apollo's POV, we just end up missing them because they aren't important to his storyline. (Or Phoenix's quest to find out what exactly happened in the events that caused him to lose his attorneys badge, as documented in 4-4.)

Edgeworth is definitely coming back in the upcoming game. We will see Gumshoe as well but i want to see Maya and Iris in the upcoming prosecutor game. Hopefully they'll show a lot of Dahlia as well, she was just awesome =).

Maya is vaguely mentioned in AJ...when Phoenix is in hospital he has a stack of stuff of all the Samurai series [Pink Princess, Nickel...etc.] and its sorta hinted that he was sent that stuff from Maya which i found cute

but yeah i hope they are mentioned in the 5th game though obviously i agree that Phoenix and Maya shouldn't take centre stage in little Apollo's own game