Why won't nintendo do it? Can't they atLEAST put it on ds??????

they need to make earthbound for 3ds in 3ds it be epic i only played earthbound the english one on snes but not mother 2 or 3

It's been spoken to death before. Clearly Nintendo is too afraid someone's going to find something and sue them for some nitpicking copyright infringement issue.
If they weren't, both EarthBound (and probably Mother 1) would be on VC by now in America, and definitely in Japan (where it is also conspicuously missing, despite being featured as a "Masterpiece" in the Japanese version of Brawl.)

Because a lot of stuff in the game walks a thin line of copyright infringement.

That's what made Earthbound such a charming and quirky game. It was full of character. Something videogames of today know barely anything about.

Yeah well it wont do Nintendo any good if they spend more money paying off law suits than the game will be bringing in.

It's obviously just NOT coming. Just buy the game yourself. The game has been hyped up so much in recent years it's really just overrated now.

Doesn't it seems stupid though...I mean...the game already EXISTS...and Nintendo has already been sued by old stuff anyways. >.>
Highly doubt Nintendo would lose anything by releasing Earthbound.

It could be that there were previous deals made that stated that Nintendo cant release it unless they pay a huge sum of money and in doing that would cost a VC price that wouldnt be worth it.

I think it's just time for everybody to accept that Nintendo just isn't going to release Earthbound again, I'm sad to say.

The only way I could see them possibly getting away with re-releasing the game without butchering it would be if they gave it away for free, but saying that it's unlikely is a vast understatement.

I would like a Mother Trilogy on 3DS or Wii U.

its kinda hard for me to sympathize when you can buy Earthbound on snes (though i know its not cheap these days)
you can save up for it, if you have to, and stop waiting for almost a DECADE for it to come out on VC. you could have it by now. get a snes, an EB cart, a new battery installed and yer golden.
i too wish it would be released on VC (for convenience purposes) and i have 2 complete games of it. until then id suggest getting a physical cart if you care this much about the mother/earthbound series like i do.
save some money or stop being frugal.

@oldgamesonly that's a ridiculous statement. You think, perhaps, some people might not have the money or the space to spare on old gaming systems? I personally don't care about Earthbound since I've never played it, so I'm certainly not going to be spending over £100 on an old game (plus it wasn't even released in this country anyway) and have another console cluttering up my living room. No, I only want to play Earthbound out of curiosity, which would be an instant buy for a Virtual Console release but almost definitely never for the original release.

My point is, not everyone is you and not everyone has the luxury of collecting old expensive video games. Some of us have, well, a life.

You don't collect old video games and systems then fine, don't get mad at those that do. I agree with oldgamesonly, you want something then save up and pay the market price for it.

Couldn't those references be protected as parodies? And if not, Nintendo has altered VC games in the past. I think team names were changed in one of the football games since EA pretty much now has the NFL license on legal lockdown. I've never really been a fan of the game myself. I bought it back in the late 90s because people were raving about it and there was no way to rent it anymore; one of my most regretted purchases. But if so many people want this game so badly, Nintendo is being foolish not to spend a little money taking out copyright-issued materials and putting this on the VC.

Here is a list of some potential legal issues with Earthbound. Probably not worth Nintendo's resources going into fixing things or defending themselves from lawsuits for an $8.00 game.

Let it go people let it go its just insanity to think this game is coming to the West, now that we have put this sillyness behind us we can concentrate on the serious matter of getting Shenmue 3 made!!!

Nintendo does still have the rights to make a new one if they want don't they? The SNES version is easily in my top 3. I don't know why they gave up.

And not every company has the money to spend to alter an eight dollar game. The point that Oldgamesonly is saying is that if these people who whine and cry about Earthbound not coming to VC want to play it so bad then there are ways that they can get it if they want it that bad without beating an already dead horse.

The point is Earthbound will probably never come to VC so find another way to play it if you want to that badly.

I'm pretty sure Nintendo does have the money to alter an eight dollar game, but you're missing the point. I'm basically criticising that post for making an assumption that buying the original cart is a simple option for everyone. As I said, I only care about playing Earthbound as a curiosity, so I'll probably never play it - I simply don't care. However you can't assume everyone's situation is the same - maybe the creator of the post is married with a family and a house where gaming has to be done on the sole console in the living room. In such a situation you have to make compromises and sometimes a retro console with a £100+ game is not an option no matter how much you want it.