Nintendo's lack of Mother 3 localisation was business decision, Reggie Fils-Aimé insists

Nintendo's decision not to bring cult classic Mother 3 to the west was purely "business", former Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aimé has said.

The latest comment on the matter - and the latest interview with Fils-Aimé as he promotes his new memoir - comes from Bloomberg, where the former exec stated for the first time that Mother 3's content was not the issue.

"That is not at all the issue why Mother 3 in particular never made it to the West," Fils-Aime said when asked about Mother 3's more sensitive topics. "It was all based on the business needs and the business situation at the time."

Mother 3's lack of localisation has been reportedly brought up over the past few weeks, following a comment from the game's producer who suggested that difficulty translating Mother 3's writing may have been the cause.

In a previous interview to promote his book, Fils-Aimé said Mother/Earthbound fans shouldn't hold their breath for a release.

"The company knows there's a lot of passion for that franchise, but thinking about how to make it current, thinking about how to make it bigger than just the - you know, let me call it the relatively small group of fans that desperately want to see Mother 3 or something next in the Earthbound series - that's what the company I'm sure has been thinking about," Fils-Aimé previously said. "And they just haven't figured out yet the solution to that, or at least they haven't been prepared to talk about it."

Fils-Aimé was repeatedly asked about Mother 3's localisation while at Nintendo, to the point where it became a meme. During Nintendo's E3 2014 presentation, a puppet of Reggie was shown shooting a fireball at a journalist who asked about its lack of release.

Over the years, multiple reports suggested a western release had been considered - but ultimately was dropped by Nintendo due to concerns around elements of the game's story, such as its darker themes concerning grief, and also the depictions of its Magypsy tribe.

Last week, Fils-Aimé distanced himself from recent reports concerning contract workers at Nintendo, and said the issues raised were not representative of his time in charge.