Fils-Aime Loves His Mother... Still Doesn't Call.
Earthbound ("Mother") is an awesome series. Out of all the eccentric and frequently glossed-over Nintendo titles, I would say that series has the most rabid american fan base. Seriously, those guys will take off an arm.
Turns out, everyone's favorite Nintendo big wig is a fan of the series as well.. Mr. Fils-Aime loves the title, and in an recent interview with MTV's Multiplayer he was more than happy to confess his love.
I'm a big "Mother" fan. Huge "Mother" fan. I would love to see "Mother" localized in our market. In fact, I've talked to [Nintendo president] Mr. Iwata about it because this is a game he has some history with. [pauses] But it is not on our announcement schedule. [laughs]
Laughter aside, it's nice to know that a man with clout is on our side. It's been pretty much said that Earthbound is a legal nightmare for the Virtual Console, and that is why the game has been floating around in the ether. There really is no word as to why the sequel never saw the light of day.
Maybe I'm going to burst some people's bubbles, but just because I'm the president of NOA doesn't mean that every game that I love gets published in our territory. We run a business. And so, in order for a title to be published, the development, localization, launch, volume, all needs to make economic sense.
Basically, he's saying it won't make enough money. Sad, and it would seem after several unsuccessful petitions the pipe dream that is another US Earthbound release fades further and further away. I'm still going to keep my fingers cross, but my hopes are all but dashed.
Asterick
Posted to Video Games on 2 April 2009
· Comments (5)
Other stuff like this: earthbound, fils-aime, nintendo, releases denied
I think many-a-gamer needs to take heed of that last quote.
Getting a bit sick of people saying "so-and-so are so retarded for not bringing out such-and-such a game to the Western Market".
Sure, sometimes they may get it wrong but it has to make economic sense. These guys/gals are motivated by money and if something runs the risk of losing them money then they won't bother.
Yeah, because all those games for the Sega Master System that they keep releasing on the VC are huge money makers.
Don't get me wrong here, I love me some classic Phantasy Star. But I can guarantee that there is a higher demand for Earthbound than any game that has ever been released for the SMS. Hell, kids these days have never even heard of the system. Sadly enough.
To me, this just sounds like Reggie is blah-blah-blah-ing his way to saving some face to the rabid Mother fanatics...
If you guys took a look at the Mother 3 fan translation while they were still in progress, you can see how it's really, REALLY not a translation-friendly game. It would be expensive to translate in comparison to most games and wouldn't even earn that much because it's a niche game, and the GBA has been kinda dead for a while now as well.
Kid Amnesiac 79.... dude! seriously?
I'm sure it costs very little to put a game on VC else they wouldnt have put up so many and now expanding it into Arcade games.
... in comparison to translating a game.
Try listening to what is being said and acknowledging the very good and understandable reasons for it not being translated. FFS Mother/Earthbound/whatever wasn't even released over here in Europe, so you can see that it possibly didn't sell a bunch.
I'm not saying its a good thing that certain games don't get a translation, in fact it sucks (ie Captain Rainbow) I'm just gonna be a bit more grown up about it and accept the facts.
The Earthbound of Virtual Console has nothing to do with cost. That was a legal manuver.
The game itself is ripe with references and parodies and they are worried they might have to pay royalties for images and songs used in the game. NoJ owns the title, and told NoA that they could release the game if they didn't modify it. NoA legal told NoJ they won't release it unless they can remove the potentially "problematic" content from the title.
So they are at a dead lock.