Earthbound Denied for US Wii Virtual Console?

By Jorge Ba-oh 17.02.2009 12

Earthbound Denied for US Wii Virtual Console? on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

Earthbound may never be available on Nintendo's Virtual Console service in the US due to potential legal issues.

Last May the ERSB rated the title, and it was assumed that the SNES rpg classic had made it to the service with no complications. However according to Starmen.net it may have been a mistake. There may be issues with a fair chunk of Earthbound's soundtrack using samples/sounding similar to other commercial tracks.

Apparently NCL won't approve changes NoA have requested, so it seems the title won't be going digital in the West until something changes.

Box art for EarthBound
Also known as

Mother 2

Developer

Ape

Publisher

Nintendo

Genre

Turn Based RPG

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  10/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  9/10 (5 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date Out now   Australian release date Out now   

Comment on this article

You can comment as a guest or join the Cubed3 community below: Sign Up for Free Account Login

Preview PostPreview Post Your Name:
Validate your comment
  Enter the letters in the image to validate your comment.
Submit Post

Comments

satsubatsu347 is offline. satsubatsu347 17.02.2009#1

"Sounding similar"? What rubbish is that?

The Big N need to just crush all opposition to total domination already.

 
JoshSL is offline. JoshSL 17.02.2009#2

Couldn't they just change the name to Mother and be done with it? This is pathetic.

Twitter | C3 Writer/Moderator | Backloggery
 
jesusraz is offline. jesusraz 17.02.2009#3

I think you\'re missing the point there SL. It\'s the soundtrack issues. The game\'s entire soundtrack is riddled with tunes that are VERY familiar...the Beatles is included in the list EarthBound pays \'homage\' to.

For Nintendo nowadays that is just unacceptable, and as Starmen.net (the original source of this story, not GoNintendo...) says, NoA has asked for the soundtrack to be amended, but NCL simply said no. That could partially be because of Itoi-san at APE, since he holds the rights and may feel his creation would lose some of its charm. Who knows.

The full story is here, for those interested: http://starmen.net/ebvc/

( Edited 17.02.2009 18:18 by jesusraz )

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

UNITE714: Weekly Prayers | Bible Verses
 
JoshSL is offline. JoshSL 17.02.2009#4

I guess I misread... (a lot) but Nintendo actually want to release it on US VC? That's pretty good I guess, I always thought Nintendo were completely against localising Mother games (even if this one came out in US before).

I hope they let the soundtrack change a little. I was hoping we'd see this in Europe too. Smilie

Twitter | C3 Writer/Moderator | Backloggery
 
E-Dracon is offline. E-Dracon 17.02.2009#5

you got your source wrong. It's Starmen.net and Earthboundcentral.com they made the full report that was later posted everywhere else.

 
Supa_hyped is offline. Supa_hyped 17.02.2009#6

in light of the article i dont think we'll ever see this in the west on vc. its a shame but if all is to be believed i dont blame Itoi-san.

 
WP-Final is offline. WP-Final 17.02.2009#7

I was hoping for a Europeon release but after reading this, I \'ll just play it on an emulator.

I tried to play it legally Nintendo, but I\'ve waited long enough. Smilie

From what I\'ve read, NoA\'s lawyers are the ones who are stopping the NA release as they want to avoid any lawsuits? They\'ve asked Nintendo Japan to change it but they\'ve said \'No, sod ya.\"

I doubt this is ever gonna be released.

( Edited 17.02.2009 18:38 by wAyNe - sTaRT )

 
jesusraz is offline. jesusraz 17.02.2009#8

NoA\'s lawyers don\'t want to open a massive can of worms, so asked NCL to make changes. NCL, for reasons unknown (but like I say, could be to do with Itoi at APE), said no to making any changes.

( Edited 17.02.2009 19:12 by jesusraz )

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

UNITE714: Weekly Prayers | Bible Verses
 
Ikana is offline. Ikana 17.02.2009#9

Pft, that sucks. Modern artists are ripping stuff off all the time. Oh well. I\'ve already played it. Would be nice to let other Europeans savour its awesomeness though.

( Edited 17.02.2009 20:37 by Ikana )

 
Mandown is offline. Mandown 17.02.2009#10

jesusraz said:
I think you're missing the point there SL. It's the soundtrack issues. The game's entire soundtrack is riddled with tunes that are VERY familiar...the Beatles is included in the list EarthBound pays 'homage' to.

For Nintendo nowadays that is just unacceptable, and as Starmen.net (the original source of this story, not GoNintendo...) says, NoA has asked for the soundtrack to be amended, but NCL simply said no. That could partially be because of Itoi-san at APE, since he holds the rights and may feel his creation would lose some of its charm. Who knows.

The full story is here, for those interested: http://starmen.net/ebvc/

I was thinking that was the case also. Itoi I imagine would hate the idea of having such music removed.

 
thisissuperk is offline. thisissuperk 18.02.2009#11

I was actually hoping to buy this series on VC because it's so important and seems really great and I'd like to get into it's awesome in a legal fashion.
Looks like I'm going to have to do an emulator :/

 
Memgamaster (guest) 28.09.2010#12

I don't care about legal issues. The game is a legend for RPG Fans. I have been waiting for this game on VC ever since the system came out. The music was allowed in the original game, so why not the re-release?

Subscribe to this topic Subscribe to this topic

If you are a registered member and logged in, you can also subscribe to topics by email.
Sign up today for blogs, games collections, reader reviews and much more
Site Feed
Who's Online?
jesusraz

There are 1 members online at the moment.