STARMEN.NET is reporting that EarthBound is being indefinitely held from Virtual Console release, possibly due to copyright concerns from NoA’s legal staff. Earthbound fans have suffered numerous false starts, but between from Iwata’s namedrop and the ESRB rating, fans refused to give up hope – but apparently the rating was a mistake.
From what we’ve learned, Nintendo never intended to send EarthBound up the flagpole; it seems to have been some kind of internal mistake on behalf of the ESRB. By the time both parties (NoA and the ESRB) realized what had happened, it was presumably not worth the effort to ‘fix’. NoA didn’t have to pay for it, and the ESRB didn’t have to go to the trouble of backpedaling.
Last year’s ESRB rating went up before Nintendo confirmed that Earthbound on the VC was actually happening. So what was the hold up? Apparently NoA lawyers had issue with some game content, possibly concerned about copyright infringement. NoA wanted to modify the game to remove the offensive content, but NCL (Nintendo Company Limited, or “Nintendo of Japan”) refused to make the changes.
Regretfully, this leaves the fate of Earthbound in the hands of lawyers – significantly lowering the probability of an official Mother 3 translation or Virtual Console release of Mother, the founding NES game. Will the Mother series ever return to North American shores? Maybe – NoA has recognized the US fanbase in the past, and Smash Bros. continues to raise EarthBound awareness – but all hope hinges on the satisfaction of NoA’s legal department.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!
NES? I thought Earthbound was a SNES game. (checks google)
Yup….definitely SNES.
@ EthoSoccer
Earthbound [Zero - Rom Nickname] (Mother) – NES
-> was translated into a beta release as they were planning to release it on the Nintendo back in the day, However, they didn’t since the Super Nintendo was going to be released and they didn’t see any gain in releasing the game.
Earthbound (Mother 2) – SNES
-> Most people who followed Earthbound [Zero] (Mother) thought that the Super Nintendo release was an updated version of the first game since they both contained characters with red hats. It wasn’t until people started getting familiar with the internet and Japanese gaming that they found out that Earthbound was the sequel to the first game for the NES.
Mother 3 – GBA
-> Research this yourself.
Thanks EthoSoccer, I guess that could be confusing if you aren’t familiar with the series. I clarified it a little.
Nintendo obviously hates us.
Nintendo hates everyone, all they care about is the printing of money.
WHY AREN’T YOU ALL PLAYING YOUR HARDCORE GAME, ANIMAL CROSSING?
I’ve been looking forward to EB on the VC ever since the Wii launched. What a bitter disappointment.
But we’ve got enough shmups on the VC to last a lifetime! Thanks, Nintendo! I guess I can stop checking to see what’s new on the VC every Monday.
I WANT MY- I WANT MY- I WANT MY Mo-Ther-3!
It’s that song, you know…”I want my MTV”… but I put Mother 3…
Goodbye.
:’(
>.> Huh, Earth-what? (Happily plays Secret of Mana on the VC)
Will’s right. Before there was Ness, there was a kid named Ninten in the original 8-bit game Mother (prequel to Earthbound). I remember it being featured in Nintendo Power’s Pak Watch section many years ago.
See this is what nintendo has come to. I am one mother fan that is done with waiting for it to come out on the wii. So I put it on my wii with out nintendo. I homebrewed my wii just to play the mother games.I thought it wasn’t going to come to that but it did. I am done with nintendo. I will still hope that they will do somthing with earthbound or mother 3.
That’s super lame. Even if there is music that could be similar to other copyrighted music, the game came out in 1995. No one had concerns about it then?? They released it on SNES with no problem, just port it to Virtual Console!