If its a completely new one, they won E3 for me.  If its for VC, then they have a step up on MS and Sony at E3.

Doesn't say, but I guess we're not keeping it a secret anymore...

"Mother fans, rejoice! EarthBound, also known as Mother 2 and the only game of the series to be released in the US, has been rated by the ESRB for the Wii. While that seems to be a good indication the game is bound for the Virtual Console, we're not going to make that leap without an official confirmation from Nintendo. Besides, given the rabid fan base of the game here, we're half-serious when we say we suspect Nintendo might consider selling the game unchanged for $50 on a disc. We guarantee it would sell like gangbusters."

Old news.

We've actually known about Earthbound for a while.

http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=25620

It's probably just a Virtual Console version, and even worse, it does not guarantee a release there either (there have been a couple of games listed on the ESRB for the virtual console that got pulled later). And, to be honest, I hope Earthbound doesn't get on the VC, because that dents the chance of an Earthbound compilation on the DS, which is our only chance of getting Mother 3.

How does it do that? Metroid is available on the VC, and there's a billion ways to play Metroid on GBA (and even GAMECUBE!)

The fan made translation of Mother 3 is almost done anyway.

True, although you exaggerate (the Metroid Prime 2 version was an Easter egg in a game that didn't sell as well as it should have, and the GBA Reader version came out several years before the Virtual Console one. Also remember that the GBA Reader itself and the previous retail version were just a testing ground for the Virtual Console, so double-dipping there isn't too surprising).

However, Nintendo of America got burned badly by Earthbound, and has unfortunately been quite skittish about the series ever since. Further, Nintendo really likes money, which is why I suspect they'll go the Squaresoft route and not release a game for $8 on the VC when they can conceivably charge more for a retail version.

Having said all of that, I'll admit there are strong counterarguments. Nintendo's been willing to port its NES and even SNES games multiple times, with a retail version for the GBA and then a Virtual Console version, so they're not exactly shy about milking. But where the difference lies for me is in the order: so far, they've released the pricier version first, and then the budget version a few years later. This would reverse the order. I just don't see them doing anything that lessens the chance of sales for a Mother compilation before the compilation is released (as having one of the three games means many gamers who haven't played the SNES version are paying a third for something that's redundant).

I could be quite wrong about all of this, of course (and I really hope I am). Honestly though, my gut feeling is that Nintendo will release a Virtual Console version, but not the rumored compilation, and that makes me sad, because I'll have to pirate Mother 3 to play it at all. Here's hoping I've misread the whole situation, and that we'll have our cake and eat it too.

Yeah, and that's probably going to be the way I'll have to go. I just always feel bad about downloading ROMs of games I've never owned (although I'm okay with getting ROMs of games I already have, or cracks and hacks for PC games I bought). It's silly of me, perhaps, but whachagonnado?

Then buy the japanese version if you feel that bad. Then download the translation. It's not like nintendo is giving us any options.

The bolded part is what ticks me off...

And that may end up being what I do. It's what I did for Shiren and Ys4, so it's hardly unprecedented...

VGChartz: solving moral dilemmas in just two easy posts.