A sequel to Mother 3 is 'impossible'

A Mother 4 is not in the cards, EarthBound and Mother series creator Shigesato Itoi has confirmed. In an interview with Japanese gaming site Game Watch and translated by Kotaku, Itoi explains why he has no plans to work on another game based on the world of Ness and Lucas.

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

In the interest of ending the series on a high note, Itoi has no plans to return to the franchise, confirming that a sequel would be "impossible."

Whether or not he plans on designing more games whatsoever is also up in the air. Itoi mentions that he's glad that game developer is not his profession; he works as a copywriter, with the Mother series something of a side project for him.

"If it was my job, I would've already made [Mother] 4 and 5," he said.

Fans have taken it upon themselves to develop a new installment in the role-playing game series. The team behind the unofficial Mother 4 launched a trailer back in 2013 with a planned 2014 release in mind. The planned Windows PC, Mac and Linux game has since been delayed, and has remained in development for over five years.

Players can check out Mother 1 and Mother 2 — respectively known as EarthBound Beginnings and EarthBound, stateside — on the Wii U Virtual Console. Japanese gamers will be able to re-play Mother 3 on Wii U when it hits the eShop exclusively in that region on Dec. 17.