How much do you think the existence of the Mother 3 fan-translation has influenced NoA's decision of not bringing the game officially?

[AztecComplex]

Think about it. I'm sure talks about bringing the game have happened, especially after they released Earthbound on WiiU and NN3DS VC, the SNES Classic and even Earthbound Beginnings (aka Mother 1) in the last few yeas. But then there's the matter of the localization and thats where I think Nintendo of America is between a rock and a hard place and they know it I think.

The Mother 3 fan translation is perhaps the best fan localization ever done in the history of videogames. It's been talked about extensively and the way I see it if NoA wants to bring the game they have two options:

a) Contact Tomato (the translator) who has said numerous times he'd be willing to give his work to Nintendo for free if asked and use that. They'd save money and time and fans all over would love it since its already so well received. BUT this would set a nasty precedent that Nintendo might not want to encourage to happen more (fans translating games themselves that lead to piracy and yet they might still get recognition from Nintendo later).

b) Do their own localization themselves which runs the risk of not being as good as Tomato's and even if it was good it will forever be compared to the fan work and not leave Nintendo's professional localization work in a good light.

I'm happy the fran translation exists but I also think having this work being this good has only complicated Mother 3's chances of being officially released outside of Japan due to this.

What does Era think?

 

[sheaaaa]

I don't think it factors into their decision making at all. The vast majority of people who would be exposed to the game with a Switch release would have no idea about the fan translation.

 

[Amaterasu]

I imagine it's just the content keeping it from coming over. Seems like a lose-lose situation to me. If they change it, people bitch, and if they keep it the same, people bitch.

 

[Unknownlight]

Eh, I'm not convinced. Whatever reason NoA has for not localizing Mother 3, I don't think the existence of the fan translation has had any meaningful influence on it.

 

[sortofdotdotdot]

I just think they think no one would buy it because of its aesthetics. It's beautiful imo but the general gaming public has moved on from that look. Take Pokemon, for example. I could see them updating Mother 3 to a style more like Lets Go Pikachu and Eevee but then again I don't see them bothering

 

[GhostTrick]

I think that it has no incidence on Nintendo's willingness to do it. Now about Mother 3, we had rumours about a release, which never happened in the end. I'm wondering if it's because Nintendo gave up on Virtual Console or because they are remaking it...

But yeah, it's a good thing emulation is a thing, despite what some people claims.

 

[LewieP]

I don't think it's a factor at all.

I can't see Nintendo using or in any way associating with a fan translation. They'd just do their own.

 

[GamerJM]

I don't think the fan translation itself has directly affected Nintendo, but I do think its existence has affected the fan community's efforts to campaign for a localization which has indirectly affected Nintendo. It's tough to say what the Mother fandom would look like today without a fan translation though. Maybe it's actually made things more likely because there are more passionate Mother fans?

 

[Deleted member 43657]

I'm on the side that says it's likely that the content is what's preventing Mother 3 from being localized officially by NOA. This would have been the easiest slam dunk and a tremendous fan play that could've happened a million times by now and because of the sheer fact that it hasn't, that probably means it won't. Just my two cents.

 

[Mekanos]

Nintendo gets to carrot stick overly optimistic Mother fans for years on end as it is. That seems like enough for them.

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

There will be way more people buying the game than the fans who bothered getting the game to work on their computers. And most of the fans who got it to work on their computers will appreciate the game being localized. Only a loud minority will be ungrateful and complain if the translation isn't as good the fan translation.

 

[MaverickHunterX]

Eh, I'm not convinced. Whatever reason NoA has for not localizing Mother 3, I don't think the existence of the fan translation has had any meaningful influence on it.

Click to shrink...

I don't think it matters one damn bit and what's this stuff about NOA being at fault? Isn't the call for 99% all actions depending on NOJs response? The infamous Goldeneye deal for example.

I really wish earthbound fans would not drive themselves nuts like this. Has the world already forgotten all the problems that came with the earthbound virtual console release? Where people dedicated entire websites trying to figure out why the game couldn't be legally re-released in America, and when it finally happened and a rep from Nintendo was being interviewed, they refused to acknowledge that there was any legal hold up to be had.

TL;DR - Nintendo was being ballbusting Nintendo. Nuff said. If anything, I bet Reggie wants nothing more to them to release the game in America but he has the wait for the Japanese to give approval.

 

[Velocity:Design:Comfort]

Does anyone know what Itoi has said about the matter?

 

[Twenty5Thousand]

There's too much work to put in for a localization of a Japanese only GBA RPG game. The only way Mother 3 is getting an official localization is if Nintendo has a good excuse to do it that isn't simply a rerelease. I'd only see it happening through a remake of sorts.

 

[Deleted member 24907]

I imagine it's just the content keeping it from coming over. Seems like a lose-lose situation to me. If they change it, people bitch, and if they keep it the same, people bitch.

Click to shrink...

This plus the costs of translating it. I'm sure Itoi also needs to be involved somehow and I'm not sure he'd be willing to be at this point.

Even if they save on distributor by going digital only I'm sure Nintendo has already done the market research to know the game is niche at best and may not even recoup the official localization costs.

 

[LewieP]

There's too much work to put in for a localization of a Japanese only GBA RPG game. The only way Mother 3 is getting an official localization is if Nintendo has a good excuse to do it that isn't simply a rerelease. I'd only see it happening through a remake of sorts.

Click to shrink...

A GBA classic would be a good time to do it.

 

[Ashodin]

The game won't come over because magypsies

 

[duckroll]

A GBA classic would be a good time to do it.

Click to shrink...

Let's see if Nintendo even bothers with a GB/GBC Classic first. All the talk about a N64 Classic hasn't panned out either.

 

[Amaterasu]

This plus the costs of translating it. I'm sure Itoi also needs to be involved somehow and I'm not sure he'd be willing to be at this point.

Even if they save on distributor by going digital only I'm sure Nintendo has already done the market research to know the game is niche at best and may not even recoup the official localization costs.

Click to shrink...

I actually wouldn't be surprised if it is already translated, but they just don't want to deal with the headache.

 

[Ayirek]

This plus the costs of translating it. I'm sure Itoi also needs to be involved somehow and I'm not sure he'd be willing to be at this point.

Even if they save on distributor by going digital only I'm sure Nintendo has already done the market research to know the game is niche at best and may not even recoup the official localization costs.

Click to shrink...

This is what I see as the main sticking point.

A GBA classic would be a good time to do it.

Click to shrink...

A GBA classic would be so, so stupid now that Nintendo is finally making available legacy softwate via their online service. If they make dedicated hardware instead of putting on the online service I will be shocked. Pretty sure this is why we haven't heard anything substantial about an N64 classic.

 

[Unknownlight]

I don't think it matters one damn bit and what's this stuff about NOA being at fault? Isn't the call for 99% all actions depending on NOJs response? The infamous Goldeneye deal for example.

I really wish earthbound fans would not drive themselves nuts like this. Has the world already forgotten all the problems that came with the earthbound virtual console release? Where people dedicated entire websites trying to figure out why the game couldn't be legally re-released in America, and when it finally happened and a rep from Nintendo was being interviewed, they refused to acknowledge that there was any legal hold up to be had.

TL;DR - Nintendo was being ballbusting Nintendo. Nuff said. If anything, I bet Reggie wants nothing more to them to release the game in America but he has the wait for the Japanese to give approval.

Click to shrink...

No, I wasn't trying to assign fault, I just assumed it was an NoA decision. Like, NoA chose not to localize Xenoblade Chronicles, but Nintendo of Europe decided to do it, which is why Xenoblade has its iconic British accents.

If it's really Japan that didn't want Mother 3 localized, then okay.

 

[Marmoka]

I think Nintendo is localizing it (or has already finished the job), and they want to release the Mother Collection, but still they are not sure when to put it on sale.

 

[Foffy]

It didn't stop Star Fox 2 and EarthBound Beginnings from being released.

 

[Burning Justice]

Not at all. The platform it's on is, and always has been, the issue.

I don't expect it to ever get localized unless it gets a port or remake (not a Virtual Console release) on another platform.

 

[Inugami]

There was a near full leak plus a fan translation of Star Fox 2 that never kept Nintendo from eventually releasing the game on the SNES classic.

I don't honestly think there is ANY correlation there, it's more that they really lost their chance to release it. Their best chance was with the Wii U after finally releasing Earthbound 0 and Earthbound, but either the sales weren't there, or simply it came too late. Now they don't have any good way of releasing it since there is no official support for GBA on the 3DS aside from the ambassador titles and the Wii U is long dead and the Switch has no virtual console.

 

[Pyro]

I don't think it has anything to do with their decision, or at least not really. I'm sure someone there said that "there's no point since the fans did it", but that would just be a fake excuse because they've probably never had any intention to bring it over.

 

[GhostTrick]

There was a near full leak plus a fan translation of Star Fox 2 that never kept Nintendo from eventually releasing the game on the SNES classic.

I don't honestly think there is ANY correlation there, it's more that they really lost their chance to release it. Their best chance was with the Wii U after finally releasing Earthbound 0 and Earthbound, but either the sales weren't there, or simply it came too late. Now they don't have any good way of releasing it since there is no official support for GBA on the 3DS aside from the ambassador titles and the Wii U is long dead and the Switch has no virtual console.

Click to shrink...

Nothing prevents them from porting it as it is and release it as a digital download title.
The thing is, it's a game demanded in West. Japan got their Wii U VC release. Nintendo is a japanese developper. They see no point to do something for West only for a niche IP.

At this point, I gave up. I think everyone should give up. There's a great translation available and everyone should play it on the GBA version via emulation or OG hardware.

 

[MaverickHunterX]

No, I wasn't trying to assign fault, I just assumed it was an NoA decision. Like, NoA chose not to localize Xenoblade Chronicles, but Nintendo of Europe decided to do it, which is why Xenoblade has its iconic British accents.

If it's really Japan that didn't want Mother 3 localized, then okay.

Click to shrink...

My bad, my friend. I didn't mean to single you out. Yours was the first example that mentioned NOA by name. But long story short, I believe many folks blame Reggie and co. for crazy decisions made in Japan. I think people don't get that Reggie doesn't call as many shots as people believe.

It didn't stop Star Fox 2 and EarthBound Beginnings from being released.

Click to shrink...

The only reason we got EBB/EB Zero was because SNES Earthbound did gang-busters on VC. And from what I heard, the NES version didn't do as much sales as the SNES version did (or why not toss it on the classic NES?)

SF2 I don't have an excuse for...

 

[Deleted member 10737]

i still have a feeling it's coming. they were working towards it on wii u, but they feel like it's a big deal and didn't want to waste it on that platform. i'm cautiously optimistic for a collection on switch.
i don't think the existence of a fan translation has any effect on their decisions about the series, and i'm sure fans will be happy to get official translated releases even if they're not as good as tomato's works. some people will whine and bitch, but it won't matter.

A GBA classic would be a good time to do it.

Click to shrink...

a gba classic with mother 1+2 and 3 would be amazing

Now they don't have any good way of releasing it since there is no official support for GBA on the 3DS aside from the ambassador titles and the Wii U is long dead and the Switch has no virtual console.

Click to shrink...

a collection of roms being emulated is a perfectly fine way to do it. there's already rom collections from sega, capcom and SE on the switch.
and it's not like nintendo hasn't done it before. they did it for mario and kirby on wii.
i think a rom collection of the three games will do pretty well. just put 2 in there as it is, translate 3, and put 1 with a new translation and enhancements from the GBA version. add some extras like art gallery/music player, etc. also put a booklet in there, mother fans love booklets.

 

[Deleted member 2652]

i don't think they give a shit about the fan translation. it's the fact that it's a GBA game and niche franchise.

 

[Linde]

I don't think they could do a better job than the fantranslation to be quite honest.
Especially considering how badly their localizations have butchered games in the past. I honestly would prefer for them to either use the fantranslation or not bother at all.
That being said, I don't think they would use a fantranslation even if its just that easy for them, which is a shame.

 

[Deleted member 5028]

Nah. I think they'll finally release it as part of NESFlix.

 

[Hells]

Mother 3 being released in the 2nd year of the DS lifespan and the year the Wii was released is the biggest factor for Nintendo not releasing the game outside of Japan. Fan Translation or not, Nintendo would have handled the situation exactly the same.

 

[AztecComplex]

There's too much work to put in for a localization of a Japanese only GBA RPG game. The only way Mother 3 is getting an official localization is if Nintendo has a good excuse to do it that isn't simply a rerelease. I'd only see it happening through a remake of sorts.

Click to shrink...

Sadly I think this is a better and more plausible reason than the content (as if NoA was shy to censor games before).

The one way I do see this happening is if they launch a collection of all 3 games on Switch or make a remaster/remake of Morher 3 for Switch. Sadly I don't see them releasing a port of a GBA RPG as is in 2019.

 

[AztecComplex]

The only reason we got EBB/EB Zero was because SNES Earthbound did gang-busters on VC. And from what I heard, the NES version didn't do as much sales as the SNES version did (or why not toss it on the classic NES?)

SF2 I don't have an excuse for...

Click to shrink...

I don't think anyone at Nintendo expected the obscure and by all accounts lesser game that's Earthbound Beginnings to sell as well as EB did. It's a grindy and very difficult NES RPG with a super simple story that has no nostalgic value for Americans since it never came out here officially.

That said it all points to EB Beginnings doing well enough for Nintendo's expectations.

 

[Zen Hero]

I kind of think it may have, but not really for the reasons you mentioned.

Maybe they think it's the kind of game that will only sell to hardcore fans, but they also know that hardcore fans would have already played it by now. So maybe they don't think it's worth the trouble because of that.

 

[HotHamBoy]

This is what I see as the main sticking point.

A GBA classic would be so, so stupid now that Nintendo is finally making available legacy softwate via their online service. If they make dedicated hardware instead of putting on the online service I will be shocked. Pretty sure this is why we haven't heard anything substantial about an N64 classic.

Click to shrink...

Using a Classic handheld in its original form-factor would be an inherently different experience than using a TV.

I would much rather have a GB Classic than play GB games on my Switch.

Besides, at the current rate it will yet be years before certain games appear on Switch.

 

[Forkball]

It has zero impact. Mother 3 came out in Japan in April 2006, a year and a half after the DS. While many games, even JRPGs, have a worldwide release these days, it certainly wasn't always the case. NoA didn't want to spend the time and money on translating a GBA RPG to be released in maybe 2007 when they were fully focused on the DS (and Wii). The same fate befell Pokemon TCG 2, it came out a few months before the GBA in the states and NoA didn't want to focus on localizing GBC games at that point.

They could have released it on the VC at some point, but why spend so much time translating an entire JRPG only to throw it on the eShop? If they were to ever release it, they would probably want it to be a bigger release and price tag (such as a Mother Collection if not a full remake).

 

[Nuclear Muffin]

It has nothing to do with it at all.

 

[Lord Vatek]

I think the fact that it's an eleven year old game has affected their decision more.

If they ever release a GBA Classic, then that would be the time to release it. Beyond that, then it's not happening.

 

[Dreamboum]

Why would it affect anything.

 

[eXistor]

Not at all I'd say. It'll come, have some faith.

 

[cbrotherson]

I think, given the time frame, it's more 'likely' (which isn't to say it's happening) that Nintendo is re-making it in order for it to be a more market friendly title (e.g updated/3D visuals). In my crazed, uninformed opinion.

In some sort of strange reversal as Mother 3's conception, we've gone from:

- The 3D N64 announcement, to,

- It's on its way, to

- It's disappeared, to

- It's probably not being made, to

- It's coming back! To,

- It's now a 2D GBA game! To,

- It's not getting a translation.

And now we're slightly 180-ing:

- It's not getting an official translation!

- It was maybe coming back (Earthbound Beginnings/Virtual Console presence)

- It's probably not being translated ever

- It's disappeared/not referenced anywhere

- It… may be now a 3D Switch game? Who knows

Like many have said, releasing it in its current form probably is more problematic than it's worth and the least attractive option, but giving it an overhaul/going back to the original design gives Nintendo the chance to make any changes to the Magypsies (god knows how, but still), promote it as a 'new' title, get another bite of the cherry in Japan, and make sure the localisation can differ enough from the fan translation (if that is a factor).

Nintendo is aware of Mother's fanbase and potential in the West, whether or not it's worth the money investing in is probably the biggest question. But given how popular Switch is, it's pretty much got the best opportunity the game has ever had of reaching its max audience.

None of which to say, could be happening if Nintendo Japan simply isn't up for it.

 

[PurpleMoustache]

If we go by the rumors from the mods of this very site, as well as rumors from that guy who leaked a lot of Smash and Tekken stuff... NoE translated the thing recently. It's done, and sitting somewhere. Apparently nobody knows "when to release it".

Now, that's if we buy rumors at all. But considering Eurogamer et all vetted that first part I'm inclined to believe it.

I feel like at this point it has to be a remake or a remaster or something. Keep in mind the series is still popular in Japan, 13 years since the last release, that they STILL come out with regular series of Gatchapon toys and Itoi's homegoods company makes daily planners with Earthbound theming on the regular. Coming out with a more modern sprite-style remake of the trilogy is a slam dunk, and with the Day of The Tentacle, Monster Boy, etc "remasters" just being an art layer on top of emulation, there's no reason why that couldn't be the same...