Starmen: Earthbound will never come out on Virtual Console

Denial... it ain't just a desert in Scaraba. :(

No, the reason America never got Earthbound on the Virtual Console is the same reason we never got the Mother 1 & 2 and Mother 3 on the GBA: Nintendo is robbing us. They'd rather metaphorically hook a car battery to our gonad pouches and jolt them up than release a game series in a region despite the fact they WILL make money by doing so. Nintendo of Japan hates America (as do all Japanese people in general), so they wont release Mother in America.

What happened to you Nintendo? You used to be COOL.

is it a sign that i just Finished Earthbound last night for the first time?
I homebrewed the Wii to play this, i wanted to beat it in time for the MOTHER 3 Fan translation (which im waiting for my guide and keychain to show up before i do)

I must say i'm very impressed and theres many RPG elements there way ahead of their time and some that have yet to be implemented in modern titles.

Also the most complete closure in any game. You could spend over 2 hours after beating the last boss talking to people, seeing how the world has changed cause of you.

No!! Earthbound was one of the FIRST RPG's I played that I didn't realy care what was going on and the random battles I didn't relay mind. Since I dont have a SNES and cant find a Legal Rom anywhere I guess now I am screwed, thanks Nintendo for letting a fan down.

How bullshit, it really doesn't excuse japanese releases.

Interesting. That could also explain EarthBound's absence from Brawl's list of Classics

I knew there had to be a rational explanation. At the end of the day, Nintendo just wants to make money. They wouldn't pass up an opportunity to make some easy cash by releasing something heavily demanded if there wasn't a challenge of some sort in the way

Which isn't to say they couldn't resolve the music licensing issues by paying off some royalties and slapping an extra $2 on the VC price or so, but at least it reveals a reason for them to not do this beyond laziness

*Sigh* Nintendo....! 反米差別野郎どもめっ("Racist anti-American buttheads").....Why must you screw with us? Why can't you release games people actually care about; not twenty versions of Monster Boy (?) or Life Force? Hmm? No thanks to this "decision" people like me have resorted to downloading the game and emulator, loading up the Twilight Hack, turning off WiiConnect 24 (to prevent them from killing homebrew) and "unofficially" playing Earthbound! HA! How do you like that!? They can't do anything about it, can they!? If the copyright issues were so bad, why didn't they look back 15 years when it was released? Nintendo owns the rights to they game, do they not? Didn't we see the same reason why Mario RPG wasn't released for long time? There werr licensing issues, but Nintendo/Square Enix worked it out and that got released, right? Certainly, out of all companies, Nintendo would definitely be able to resolve them, or am I wrong? Looks like someone over there tends to fail to communicate. If Nintendo really wants piracy to end, they should use a method that doesn't involve a way that hackers can't find a way around (i.e. wii system update) and release the bloody VC game already.

Confirmed i will never buy a wii. wtf nintendo how many people have to beg? how bout we preorder in advance?

It's not NIntendo's fault that they can get in legal trouble, and NoJ are always prideful of their projects cause their Japanese.

well, i still have my EZFlash, mother 3, and SNES emulation here i come

I'm also curious about JC's final question up there--I mean we're living in an era of international trade agreements, if it violates copyright in America it probably violates copyright in Japan. Possibly Nintendo thinks if they just keep it in Japan the American copyright holders won't ever notice (and they're probably right.)

VC is getting a lot worse...

They never gonna release any N64 Games!...

They're worrying about crud hole games...

Huh, the soundtrack is the problem? I'm impressed with how solid the music in the game is -- that drum synth used throughout is intense. It has a very unique sound compared to the others of its time. Get down on that 8-bit composition~

But seriously, very strange that the game isn't even considered for release in Japan. I think the game's pretty popular over here because of it's follow-up titles.

It's understandable due to legal and licensing issues, so it's fair,l somewhat, I guess.

That is complete and udder ********. I've played it on SNES back in the day i was hoping for a VC release, let alone a mother 3/earthbound 2 release to no avail.
Nintendo has been raking in the money since the wii dropped, they're making hand over fist and cannot be bothered with release a meesly game on VC.

This. Is. Horrible.

Reggie your "I'm about kickin' ass, I'm about takin' names, and we're about makin' games." moniker has been revoked. FAIL.

Reading most of these comments, I am betting most everyone HAS NOT READ the reason why NoA can't release it as much as they WANT TO.

This, if in fact true, is very frustrating, primarily because there is nothing illegal about the supposed "preponderance" of references to other music in the soundtrack. The closest thing to something iffy is the use of a brief Ric Ocasek sample, and even that would pass parts 3 and 4 of the U.S.'s fair use doctrine (section 107 of our copyright law) with flying colors (all 4 points are negotiable). Remember, Earthbound was published in North America in 1995. After 14 years of non-litigation, Ocasek would be ballsy and hard-pressed to show that, now, suddenly, the artistically altered, miniscule 4-5 second sample of a non-melodic part of one of his songs featured in Earthbound has caused significant detriment to his ability to profit from the work in question. Far more egregious samples in pop music, film, and television have flourished without challenge in our culture.

And all of the supposed Beatles "infringements" I've been reading about are absolute pretense. At worst, some things that are described in the lyrics of Beatles songs may have influenced characters or events in Earthbound, but even so, that would be nowhere near anything illegal. It's not illegal to take influence from something. I have not heard any convincing example of any Beatles music being "lifted" for use in Earthbound.

I don't buy this excuse.

Meh... tonight I will play my SNES copy of EB!!

I find it odd and cryptic that the ESRB hasn't removed the entry from their site yet...

Dear Nintendo,

Bite me.


Sincerely,

Matt

That sucks. I hope they do a DS version of Mother 3(or Earthbound...) because I wanna play those games badly.

@Atlantis1982: Surprised? How many respondents do you think EVER read and reply to more than just the headline? I think people are more likely to respond to other comments than to any actual article, on any site, ever.