eshop is the absolute perfect opportunity for this game.  Charge a freaking premium for it, it'll still sell.  Just do something!  I don't want to have to pirate the game.

Mother 3 is probably my favorite story in a video game.

I want to play the Mother series so badly, but I am faithfully holding out and refraining from playing the fan translated versions available online. At the very least, I would like to play Earthbound on Virtual Console as I missed it on Super Nintendo.

Iwata needs to tell Reggie: "either start doing your job, or YOU'RE FIRED!"

Wouldn't it be the other way around? How much say would Reggie have in something like this?

I don't see any of the Mother games on the VC in Japan either, just saying.

Hip Tanaka confirmed recently that there are issues with music sampling.

Would love to play/own Mother 3 legitimately and almost bought the cartridge when visiting Japan a number of years back, which I still regret not doing. I did play through the translated version which in my opinion was lightyears ahead of Earthbound... Incredibly sad/funny/relevant story and very fun and challenging to play. Releasing it here probably wouldn't make Nintendo any money even on the eShop because localization would be costly, but it would generate a lot of good will to their fans.

Iwata is a grand master troll.

Iwata you sly devil you.....

Looks like it's time for Nintendo's annual trolling of the Earthbound fanbase again.  We couldn't have a year go by without it.

Do Nintendo hate the Earthbound series or something? I'm surprised they haven't removed it from Nintendo's history yet, a la (is that the expression?) the Zelda CD-i games.

Except Nintendo didn't have anything to do with those games, they just licensed the IP to Philips. The series is pretty much Itoi's baby, I don't think they would make a game without him.

Exactly, Iwata seems to be close friends with Itoi, having worked on Mother 1 and 2 while at HAL. I doubt Iwata will green light any more Mother games without Itoi, who has stated that he has finished with the franchise. Do you really think Nintendo hates Earthbound C-Oliver? There are so many references within the Smash series.


I think the real issue is that of the music sampling, Nintendo most likely doesn't think that paying the licensing fees for the music is worth the cost. Iwata probably doesn't believe in changing the music as it would change Itoi's work.

Maybe Nintendo can make a "spiritual' sequel to the Earthbound franchise?

No, because Iwata is head of Nintendo Co. Ltd., the parent company of NOA. Reggie is just a subordinate.

But a spiritual sequel would just be another JRPG. If you want something like Mother you need to get Itoi onboard, which doesn't look promising at the moment.

The same was true of Metroid and Kid Icarus, but sadly Gunpei Yokoi died but Nintendo didn't just bury those franchises along with him. Someone else took them over. And the same can be done here as well.

Father

Grandmother

Well I never played Earthbound before. So I really hope they do something with it. I like trying out new franchises. I really didn't care for Pikmin or Animal Crossing. But picked up the Gamecube games a long time ago and loved them.

basically Earthbound was about this kid with a yo-yo and baseball bat, kinda like the goonies fighting aliens.

He also had psychic powers.

And because this was "accidental," we never heard of this again.

Well of course I know what Ness looks like. I have played Smash Bros. :P. Ever since I first saw Ness in Smash Bros. I couldn't wait to try out the franchise. But poor Nintendo won't bring it out. Now I love Lucas in Smash Bros. Brawl as well my favorite character. Anytime Nintendo wants to put Mother/Earthbound in the States I'm plopping my money down.

It comes down to two issues: music sampling and artistic integrity.  They either change the samples/arrangements of famous western music, or never touch it, never bring it out here again, and keep the game's artistic integrity.  It's similar to how Alan Moore doesn't want to be associated with the movies made of his graphic novels.  I think they're shooting themselves in the foot by not doing the former, but who knows how much it would cost to rearrange the music/sfx and reprogram the game?

All we can do for now is be satisfied we have fan translations and emulators.  :'(

This. I'm at a place emotionally where I'd pay a premium for Mother games right now.

Father's Brother's Nephew's Cousin's Former Roommate.

Even with the music issue with Earthbound they could release the FIRST Mother game on the VC.  NOA even officially translated it and then didn't release it.  The damn thing is ready to go exactly like it would have been as an official NES cartridge.

I never even heard of any music issue with Earthbound until only a few years ago.  I wonder if Nintendo didn't bring it up if anyone would have noticed.  I think the Beatles were involved or something.  As if a geezer like Paul McCartney would have any fucking idea that some obscure niche videogame has sampled his song in some way unless Nintendo themselves drew attention to it.  Is this stuff still an issue with the GBA re-release?  Somehow this game got re-released in the 21st century.  Is it different because it's in Japan?  In theory they could translate the GBA versions of all three games and then release them on the 3DS eShop.

I really wonder if there is some internal political thing in Nintendo about this.  Only the second game got released here and it wasn't very successful so you wonder if some guys in Nintendo thought releasing it in America was a bad idea and they were proven right and don't want to re-release it and risk losing face if it turns out to be successful the second time around.

None of the Mother games have been released on the Japan Virtual Console either.  This shows that even in Japan there is something internal going on we don't know about regarding this series.  Which is funny because the Japanese version of Brawl had a Mother 2 demo in the Masterpieces section, but it never came to the Virtual Console, making it the only game in that section to not be on the Virtual Console.

So yeah, something must have happened in 2008 that made even NCL have a problem with re-releasing the games in Japan as well.

Yeah, the Beatles. And The Doors, and Pink Floyd, and The Who ("Won't Get Fooled Again")...
http://earthboundcentral.com/2009/02/earthbound-legal-issues/

They could just do like they did with Punch-Out after their deal with Mike Tyson expired they just made the character white and changed the name to "Mr. Dream" or whatever, but otherwise it was completely identical.

If music licensing issues are a problem, Nintendo can just hire some composers to make some new music and use that as a replacement. How is that a big deal? If we're talking about an NES game its only going to be simple electronic MIDI type music so who really cares?

I don't have a source on this handy, but I remember reading somewhere that Itoi doesn't want to do that. If that's true, then I admire Nintendo for not forcing one of its game designers to compromise his artistic integrity just to make a few bucks, even though I've always wanted to play Earthbound and would love to see it on the Virtual Console.

Yep, it's the creator of the series Itoi who's preventing any changes.  People have to remember Itoi is an actual writer who's critically acclaimed in Japan.  To him, the Mother games are basically books he's written, and so changing the music would be like changing parts of the story in one of his books.  It's like how some writers get angry with adaptions of their books for movies or TV shows, because they have a problem with their work being changed in any way possible.  Even if the adaption is still about 90% faithful, the 10% that was changed will still cause them to get mad.

Since Itoi doesn't want any of his work changed and he's good friends with Iwata, that pretty much guarantees nothing will ever be changed in the Mother games meaning they'll probably never be re-released.  Smash Bros is pretty much the only games people will get any Mother related content from now on.

I'd love to see the source. It's not like Itoi wrote the specific music for the game; the story wouldn't be changed.

I guess if I support Bill Watterson's fight to control the Calvin and Hobbes brand, then I figure I support Itoi's position on not breaking up the "EarthBound" product on the same grounds: creator's prerogative.

I thought Itoi said he didn't mind if someone else continued the series, but I don't recall where that was. Or maybe there was just no one else who wanted to.

They should just make a spiritual successor. Goonies with psychic powers fighting aliens. I would really like to see a game like that, but with realistic graphics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pcd9VnnXSQ
i remember this trailer and thinking cool, ill get this. Lol, this music doesn't sound original either.

Nintendo already have a series like that with StarTropics. And we actually probably have a greater chance of seeing another StarTropics game before we see anything from the Mother/Earthbound franchise again.

Itoi didn't have any problems with the changes made from Mother 2 to Earthbound. The localization isn't the issue. There is definitely something deeper going on than this surface level stuff or it would have been released in Japan (since Mother 1 + 2 and 3 were released in Japan on the GBA).