Back in September, Nintendojo covered a Kickstarter campaign for a book called EarthBound Confidential from original EarthBound Translation Director/English writer Marcus Lindblum. Unfortunately, it appears Nintendo has canceled the project, due to a nondisclosure agreement Lindblum signed while the company employed him. In an interview with Polygon, Lindblum offered a few details about why the project won’t see the light of day.
“I owe a lot to Nintendo,” Lindblum told Polygon. “They gave me my start in the game business. I don’t want to do anything that makes them seem bad. I wanted to just write about the fun bits in the game that I think the fans would enjoy. But I have no desire to rock the boat with Nintendo at all.”
While Nintendo’s fierce protection of its intellectual property is news to no one, in this case it certainly must come as a disappointment for fans of the oft-beleaguered EarthBound series. After all, this is a group of fans that have even gone so far as to translate Mother 3, a Japan-only Game Boy Advance title, for free. According to Lindblum, the book was merely intended to offer those same, passionate EarthBound fans a glimpse at the process in which one of their favorite games came into existence.
Could Nintendo give EarthBound Confidential an official release? Stranger things have happened. It’s worth noting that many fans didn’t expect Hyrule Historia to see publication in the West. Perhaps the project will still see the light of day at some point. Stay tuned to Nintendojo where we’ll offer any new details as they arrive. As always, let us know what you think in the comments below.
Source: Polygon