Update: EarthBound and EarthBound Beginnings are available now on the Nintendo Switch Online service. Shigesato Itoi, you wily old fox, you!

Here's some PR:

Join Ness, Paula, Jeff and Poo in their quest to fulfill an age-old prophecy to stop the wicked Giygas (and maybe catch a Runaway Five concert along the way) in the fan-favorite Super NES classic EarthBound. In addition, travel back to 198X for EarthBound Beginnings, a localized version of the original Famicom Mother game. Both EarthBound and EarthBound Beginnings are coming to Nintendo Switch Online ... later today!

And here's a special message from Shigesato Itoi:

Original Story [Wed 9th Feb, 2022 19:30 GMT]: Red alert: Shigesato Itoi, the creator of the Mother series, just tweeted about the Nintendo Direct happening later today, sending fans wild with speculation about the imminent surprise release of an English translation of Mother 3. Or an Earthbound port to the Nintendo Switch. There are no other reasons he would tweet about a Nintendo Direct, surely?

Well, he is also a retired game developer in his 70s, who probably enjoys watching video game reveals. And Mother 3 is about as likely as Half-Life 3 at this point, or Sakurai putting your mum in Smash Bros. Still, a fan can dream, no?

Let's pick apart that tweet:

The translation — according to Google — is "7am is amazing. It may be snowing."

7am is the time that the Nintendo Direct will go live in Japan, so that's not much of a hint, but "it may be snowing" could be a reference to Earthbound, a video game that has snow. But also, it genuinely might just be snowing in Japan tomorrow.

Snow

We love a good rumour as much as the next person, especially in the few remaining hours before a chunky Nintendo Direct, but this one doesn't have a lot of meat on it. It really just seems like a nice retired man getting a little bit excited about video games and the weather.

We're happy to be proved wrong, though.