December 20th, 2012 | EarthBound, Itoi, MOTHER 4

Just now on Twitter Shigesato Itoi posted a few things about MOTHER series developments. Here’s a quick translation:

Since it’s now okay to blurt this out, here goes: the “MOTHER republication” thing I mentioned briefly before is making progress.

(original post)

And then:

It’s not “(MOTHER) 4”, though! This has to do with making “MOTHER” playable. I can’t give out any details just yet, but I do at least need to say that it isn’t 4.

(original post)

So it sounds like something interesting is up! I’ll post any new revelations as they come in – I’m hoping it’ll be some sort of compilation but who knows!

Edit: For reference, often in contexts like this whenever Itoi says “MOTHER” he’s referring to the entire series.

Edit 2: My translation of “playable” is in the sense of being able to play it with the unsaid nuance of “because the games are old and out of print”, not with the meaning of “because the game was bad and unplayable to begin with”.

Edit 3: Also, in case you missed it, Itoi also Tweeted a few weeks ago:

All you people who play MOTHER, thank you. I really appreciate it. People of Starmen.Net too… thank you very much. I hear all sorts of enjoyable rumors). SENTIMENTAL

More info on that here and here.

Edit 4: Incidentally, I’m half-convinced that Itoi’s recent renewed interest in the series was because of Chewy’s short discussions with him a little while ago. If you missed that, see here:

This makes me feel that he’s at least much more aware of his foreign fans than he was before. But it’s best not to get TOO hopeful 😛