Reggie Fils-Aimé talks about the conversations that were happening at Nintendo to port Mother 3 during his time there in his new book, "Disrupting the Game: From the Bronx to the Top of Nintendo".
Ah, Mother 3, the game that we'll never stop hearing about, it seems. For those that aren't aware, Mother 3 is an RPG for the Game Boy Advance that was released in 2006, but only in Japan. It's never been officially ported or localised by Nintendo, despite its massive critical success and its cult following in the years since its release. It's become a bit of an in-joke for both Nintendo and fans, but for every joke that's made about it, the truth behind it ever getting released gets more confusing.
Well, as reported by Nintendo Everything, Reggie Fils-Aimé actually talks about the Mother 3 situation in the audiobook version of his new book, "Disrupting the Game: From the Bronx to the Top of Nintendo". The audiobook version has interviews between Fils-Aimé and Geoff Keighley, in which Fils-Aimé talks about some of the plans regarding Mother 3.
Fils-Aimé first talks about some of the conversations that happened regarding porting Mother 3 during Nintendo's DS era, saying, "I had many conversations with Mr. Iwata about this game, about the fan passion, and certainly the perspective was the first game on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System had not sold all that well. Certainly as I've gone back to look at it, the marketing wasn't great… But boy, the game journalists had to ask me every single time."
After that, Fils-Aimé talks about how Nintendo once planned to distribute the game through the 3DS eShop, noting that it was considered for Mother 3, "There was a serious conversation during the Nintendo 3DS days, and as we launched the Wii U, that we should look at making the game available digitally through our digital storefront, because at that point the production and distribution costs are the minimus."
Finally, Mother 3 was also considered to be released on the Wii U shop at one point in time, with Fils-Aimé specifically noting that Earthbound Beginnings might have been the first step for it, "And who knows? If Mr. Iwata had not passed away, if maybe the Wii U had done better in the marketplace, maybe the Mother 3 game would have made it at that point. So there were certainly conversations, but it would have needed to have been done the right way."
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