So as the title says, can it return?

Mother 3 was a really amazing and great game, as well as Earthbound, but both were massive comrecial dissapointsments, especially Mother 3, which was a real trouble to make and sold pretty poorly, even the creator said it was too much trouble to make a Mother 4, so what do you think?

I believe we won't see it for a lonnnnnnng time...... but one day maybe... I mean, they're maing Kid Icarus for 3DS....

I hope so, it better be released in Europe as none of the games so far have

Technically, it has already returned THIS generation. Didn't Mother 3 come out in like late-2008?

Super Smash Bros. Brawl would like to say hi. =P Jk

I do think it will return someday, at least, I have my hopes. Considering Nintendo thought them important enough characters to add to SSB since the beginning, I would like to think that someday Nintendo will make another Mother game.

Wasn't it HAL that made the SSB games and the Mother titles?  It's probably due to the fact it was their own game

Shigesato Itoi (who is to Mother/Earthbound the backbone and mosti important participant of any project, an auteur director like you wouldn't believe) has said he has no plans to make a Mother 4, though he would like to play it if someone else made it.

It's possible, but it's not going to happen nfor a long, long, long, long time.

2006, and it was for the GameBoy Advance.

And as long as Itoi insists on using legally questionable references and music in the Mother games, they will never return.

no, the patch for the emulator so you can play in english came in 08, the game came 06

I said, "not for this gen" but to be honest--that's me being the optimist.  I think, more tragically, the series might just be stone dead forever.  I forget the developer's name, but he indicated that Mother 3 was the last of those games he would ever make, and Nintendo of America cares so little for gamers, that none of the trilogy will be released Stateside--which would likely, at this point, be just about the biggest audience for the series. 

Hey, when is Nintendo of America going to bring us Fatal Frame and Disaster?  Oh right, never.

Sadly I don't believe there will be anymore games in the series and it's a real shame since there does seem to be more interest for Earthbound in the last few years.