Firstly, if you want the long of it, there are two articles that need to be read. The first one is found here:

http://starmen.net/ebvc/

And for those of you who are too lazy to read it, I will summarize:

EarthBound is probably never going to be released on the Virtual Console in the West, because there are legal issues with certain pieces of game content that NCL won't allow NoA to change. Nobody knows why NCL isn't on board, but assumedly it is for a fiscally sound reason.

The other article, which delves into the specific copyright problems in EarthBound, is found here:

http://earthboundcentral.com/2009/02/earthbound-legal-issues/

And it basically says this: there are huge amounts of music sampling, names, and art that pays loving homage to many parts of Western pop culture. This sort of thing flies in Japan but not in the States, Canada, and PAL territories. The chances that Nintendo would merely buy the rights to these references and samples is so low that it is essentially negligible, and releasing the game in its current form would open up Nintendo to numerous lawsuits. However, Nintendo of Japan isn't playing ball with Nintendo of America's lawyers, and refuse to allow any changes to be made to the content.

It all comes down to this:

EarthBound is stuck in limbo, and will remain there for the foreseeable future. A Virtual Console release, at this juncture, is literally impossible. Some other kind of re-release stateside (like a DS compilation of the whole series) would appear to be equally unlikely, though not impossible because of the greater potential for return.

To be honest I kind of expected something like this, but it's still disheartening to know that I don't have to watch the Virtual Console list every week anymore.

I'm going to repeat that, in bold, one more time, so everybody can see it.

EarthBound will never come to the Virtual Console in the Western world.

That is terrible.

Now, here's the big question that I want to ask, because it has to do with how most people play the game:

How does the game no longer being commercially available, and its dubious state of future release, affect the moral problem of playing the game in ROM form? I'm not asking in terms of illegality, I know it's still illegal, I'm asking for your opinion as to whether or not this new turn of events allows you, the person reading this, to feel better about pirating the game if you intend to play it.

(please keep this discussion and everything surrounding it in line with the forum rules, we will not be talking about TEH WAREZ or giving links tto sites here, or I will report you so fast - this is an academic discussion)

Fortunately for me I enjoyed Earthbound when it was on SNES. I start trends, not follow them. Nintendoooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!! We need a new Earthbound for Wii! Forget virtual console.

I remember playing Earthbound for the very first time and thinking it was way too awesome to be legal.

I did the same thing, but I borrowed a friend's copy. I've never owned my own.

@badgenome: Turns out you were right.

Well then. I guess that only leaves one thing...

Pretty much (that is much catchier than it should be).

So you see this as a moral justification for piracy?

I personally condone playing pirated games if:

1) it's used as an extended demo of sorts - you play the game, decide if the full game is worth your time or not, and delete it after that - doesn't really differ from loaning games from a friend,

2) it's abandonware,

3) Obtaining said game is beyond reasonable effort.

And IMO, finding and buying a foreign SNES, a legal copy of Earthbound/Mother n and a new TV is way beyond reasonable effort (& cost) for a single game.

Damn.... i dont even played this game in a emulator...

Moral justification... I'm not sure if I'm ready to say that. But from a practical standpoint, if people don't have a legal and reasonable method of acquiring a product they want, it's hard to complain when they turn to illegal means.

To put it another way, if it's impossible for the customer to pay the content creators, do the content creators have the right to complain that they aren't getting paid?

I posted this story a week or so ago, but it still stings to read it.

Though i speak too soon, considering i've never played it, and now probably never will. I mean, i understand enough Japanese that i could play the game even if i went to Japan and picked up Mother 1&2 and Mother 3 for GBA, but the game's real charm is supposed to be in its writing and cultural depth, and i'm not quite there yet for Japanese.