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Former Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aimé has talked about why Nintendo never localised Mother 3.
In an interview Bloomberg, journalist Jason Schreier asked Fils-Aimé if it was because of the game’s risque subject matter. Fils-Aimé made it clear that Nintendo’s decision not to bring Mother 3 to territories outside Japan was purely based on business sense.
“That is not at all the issue why Mother 3 in particular never made it to the West. It was all based on the business needs and the business situation at the time.”
Though the game is something of a cult curio—a status people often bestow on the unobtainable—it wasn’t commercially viable, evidently. The game’s producer, Shinichi Kameoka, recently spoke on a podcast about its lack of a western version (via Nintendo Life):
“Personally, I think the biggest selling point of Mother 3 is [creator] Shigesatao Itoi’s unique writing style.” Kameoka then went on to argue that Itoi’s writing may well be the reason that it has stayed in Japan. That “translating the charm and nuances of his writing into other languages is quite a challenge.”
Well, now we know, courtesy of Fils-Aimé, that it was merely cold, hard business that made us Motherless.
In other recent Nintendo news, Fils-Aimé also spoke about the controversy surrounding the company’s treatment of contract workers.
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