There will be no Mother 4. Ever.

The Mother games (or Earthbound, as we know them in the states--the only western release of the game Mother 2) has to be one of Nintendo’s most prolific series. Perhaps not as much as Zelda or Mario, but the Mother RPGs were the defining games of their generation, inspiring far more in the RPG genre than Mario ever did for the now-nearly extinct AAA platformer genre (still very popular in Indie though). The memories created by these games are fond and fun, and there are still cries for a new Mother game to be made (and, perhaps, for the other two to be translated and brought stateside).

But according to the creator, Shigesato Itoi, that’s simply not going to happen. In an interview with Game Watch Impress, Itoi had this to say regarding a Mother 4:

"Among big-time pop stars, if they, you know, put out ten albums, around the fourth album, they can't make very good songs. The albums sell, but everyone at the concerts wants to hear songs from those first three albums. Everyone."

Now, in America, Itoi is only known for Earthbound. But in Japan, he’s a rather prolific writer and has jobs in other fields. Later in the interview, he said how grateful he was that was the case, as if he was a game designer for a living there would probably already be an Earthbound 4 or 5. A little optimistic, on his part--given this is Nintendo we’re talking about, there would at least be ten by my estimation.

Anyway. Don’t hold your breath for a Mother 4, is the take-away. Sorry, then, for everyone who had started a betting pool.