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Earlier this week, we heard from Reggie Fils-Aimé on Mother 3. While Reggie was asked about Mother 3 for decades, he had to stay tight-lipped while working at Nintendo. Now that he’s left the company, Reggie shared word that a Western release of the title was indeed considered.

In that discussion, Reggie pointed to localization cost and revenue from the previous games in the franchise as the reason for skipping over a Western release. This was somewhat surprising to fans, as many had figured that it was the content of Mother 3 that kept it from localization.

For those who haven’t played Mother 3, the game includes some story beats and handles a few characters in ways that somewhat go against Nintendo’s usual offerings, especially outside of Japan. These topics would only draw more attention in today’s world, leading many to believe an official localization would be impossible.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Reggie was asked directly as to whether Mother 3’s content played any part in the game not getting localized. According to the big man himself, that was not the case.

“That is not at all the issue why Mother 3 in particular never made it to the West. It was all based on the business needs and the business situation at the time.”

[Reggie Fils-Aimé]

Sadly, all of the information to come out this week gives us even less hope that Mother 3 will ever see an official localization. Nintendo’s reasoning for skipping over the game in the West seems more clear than ever, and it’s hard to imagine them changing their mind as the years roll on.

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Comments (4)

bakfug

2y ago

I know people always tried to justify it in different ways, but I assumed it was always about money and how the first release here failed spectacularly. Their attempt to Kickstart an interest with the franchise with Beginnings getting a localization must have fared poorly as well.


hawk

2y ago

I'm not an Earthbound fan. But I feel like it would be really nice for them to just localize Mother 3, release it stateside, and heal a serious sore spot with Earthbound fans. I really wonder if the cost and translation and editing a ROM are such a big deal that they can't just do it.


fylo

2y ago

@hawk

I suppose is one of those cases were they don't know how to sell it. I suppose at best at this point it could come like an addition to a possible GBA library for their online plan. By itself I suppose it's not worth it.


streex

2y ago

@bakfug

Yeah unfortunately it always comes down to money with corporations. Would love to see it finally make it over but if Reggie can't make it happen, it really won't happen on Doug Bowsers watch.