On the 22nd of September, 2005, Shigesato Itoi mentioned that he was working on something he called "it" in Kichijoji. Kichijoji just happens to be where Brownie Brown is located. It has long since been speculated that Brownie Brown is working on Mother 3, so this coincidence was too great to just ignore. Also at this time, Brownie Brown posted a job listing for game testers to work on a game for 3-4 months.

Itoi regularly posted about returning to Kichijoji almost every subsequent weekend. He talked about working long into the night in group meetings, working on "it." These group meeting have left him exhausted upon his return home. This shows that he is putting a tremendous amount of work into whatever "it" is.

After nearly a month and a half of secrecy, "it" was finally revealed on November 4th, 2005. The starmen.net community's long-running wish came true when it was revealed that "it" was the Mother 3 everyone had been anticipating since its announcement in the Mother 1+2 commercial that ran over two years prior. Just as the commercial announced, the game was coming to Gameboy Advance. The news became even sweeter with the additional announcement of a release date less than a season away.

Below are Shigesato Itoi's posts and translations by Tomato with a little help from Nattybumppo for the big announcement:

I'm going to be holing myself up in Kichijoji to get tons done on "it".
"It" is progressing in secret.
I'm keeping silent, that's just how it is.
Everyone who's working on "it", let's make an announcement in the near future, ok?

We're doing one of those big group get-togethers. (note: this is where people working on something get together and stay at a hotel or a camp to get tons of work done) So I'm at a Kichijoji hotel again today.

Well, starting today is yet another big get-together for me in Kichijoji. I think maybe the password should be "dead tired". I'll do my best.

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さて、ぼくはまたまた今日から吉祥寺で合宿さ。
合言葉は、「疲労困憊」かな？　がむばりまっす。

I'm currently doing yet another get-together in Kichijoji.
I find I'm working about 15 hours at a time on this.
Figuring out when to take breaks and when to eat has suddenly become a lot more important.
Hard work doesn't pay off if you can't rest well.
I really think how you relax is a big part of creativity...

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・またまた吉祥寺で合宿しています。
　15時間くらいひとつの仕事にかかりっきりになります� ��?
　休憩時間とか、食事のための時間のとり方が、
　ひじょうに大事になってきます。
　上手に休めないと、がんばりが利きません。
　休み方も、クリエイティブの大きな要素だと思うなぁ 。

I've returned from the get-together, but it seems like everyone at Hobonichi has been taking turns pulling all-nighters as of late. Whatever the case, everyone's heads are spinning everyday now.

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ぼくはぼくで合宿から戻ってきましたが、
　なんか、このところの「ほぼ日」では、
　みんながかわるがわるに徹夜しているような状態らし く、
　とにかく、みんな目が回るような毎日です。

There's one other thing I'd like to announce, but it'll be very soon so please wait just a little longer. (note: he had announced all sorts of non-Mother-related projects before this line, so he sort of threw this in as an afterthought or something)

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もうひとつ、発表するタイミングの物件があるんですが 、
これについては「もう、すぐ」なので、
もうちょっとだけ待っててください。

I'm off to do another big group get-together starting tomorrow.

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ぼくは、明日から、また合宿に行きます

# Anyways, I'm in the middle of yet another get-together at Kichijoji. I always return home extremely exhausted so I get a lot of sympathy from my family and the guys at work, but it's still fun despite the exhaustion. We're pulling all nighters, sometimes with lots of laughters, sometimes with intense silence. I'll be returning home again this evening...

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さて、あたしはまたまた吉祥寺で合宿中です。
ものすごく疲れて帰るものだから、
けっこう家族や社内の諸君に同情もされるんだけど、
疲れるんだけれど、楽しいものなのです。
爆笑とかもしたり大沈黙もしたりしながら、
徹夜しているというような現実です。
今日の夕方、また自宅に戻りまして‥‥。

After some discussion with Nintendo, I've decided to make a slightly head-start announcement here on Hobonichi. I've worried people quite a bit this whole time, but I'm happy to report that Mother 3 for Game Boy Advance is nearing release.

I've thought to myself, "It should be all right now that it's this far along," on many occasions, but I always made sure not to announce anything until I could say that it was "ABSOLUTELY all right." At any rate, this time I've decided to try and be reserved about everything. It looks like its release date will be about one season away, and I'm in the middle of doing many work retreats to get it finished. I'm going to work especially hard for a short while longer to get everything done.

By announcing this, I'm sure I'll receive all sorts of questions, but I'm probably going to stay quiet about Mother 3 until just before its release. I know the importance of publicity, but what I feel is that I want players to REALLY enjoy Mother 3. So until just before the game comes out, I'm going to remain as quiet as possible.

In any case, we're working on Mother 3. I'm happy as well that it's reached the point where we can make an announcement. Thank you to all who have waited patiently. Please forget about it again for a short while.

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任天堂とも相談して、
ほんのちょっとだけフライング気味に、
「ほぼ日」で発表させていただきます。
さんざんご心配もかけてまいりましたが、
ゲームボーイアドバンスのソフト『MOTHER3』の
発売のめどが立ちましたので、報告します。


もうここまで出来たら大丈夫、と何度か思いましたが、
「絶対に大丈夫」と言い切れるようになるまでは、
発表しないできました。
とにかく今回は、あらゆる面で控えめにしていようと、
心に決めていましたから。
発売日は、まだ、ひと季節分くらい先になりそうですし 、
仕上げのために、ぼく自身も何度も合宿している最中で す。
この先も、しばらくは追い込み的にがんばります。


と、発表してしまうと、それはそれで、
さまざまな質問などをいただきそうなのですが、
今回『MOTHER3』に関しては、ぼくは発売直前まで、
静かにしてようと考えています。
宣伝の大切さとかもわかっているつもりですが、
『MOTHER3』は、とにかく
原寸大で楽しんでいただこうと、そんな気持ちです。
ですから発売直前まで、またできるだけ静かにします。
とにかく、『MOTHER3』は、つくってます。
発表できる段階までこぎつけて、ぼくもうれしいです。
待っていてくださった方々、ありがとうございます。
またしばらくの間、忘れていてくださいね。

Anyways, I'm off to Kichijoji to do another work retreat, but Hobonichi (his online newspaper site) is going well. Each and every person is working very diligently.

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そういうわけで、ぼくはまた吉祥寺方面に合宿ですが、
「ほぼ日」はいい感じで動いています。
ひとりひとり、みんなとてもがんばってます。

I write this during a quick break during my work retreat. Lately, all I'm ever doing is looking at a computer screen, saying something, or eating something...

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合宿の時間のすきまに、これ、書き出しました。
パソコンのモニター画面を見ているか、
声を出しているか、食っているか‥‥という日々です。

On a personal note, I'm back from Work Retreat Number Whatever. If you compared me to soybeans, I would be dried-out bean curd refuse. (That last sentence would make sense to Japanese people, but we don't really talk about soybeans or "okara" soybean refuse here in the west, so yeah.)

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ぼく個人の動きですが、何度目かの合宿から戻りました 。
大豆にたとえるなら、「おから」の状態であります。

I'm still in the middle of a work retreat.

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ぼくは、まだ合宿の最中ですが。

As it currently stands, at the very least, it's fun to me. That I can honestly say for a fact. Plus I did do twice as much scenario work on it than the previous two games. So everyone else is like, "I hope it gets an 85." (Note: I assume this is a Famitsu score or something)

After having given the above information during this year (2005), I'm going to return to being quiet for a while. I apologize. I've decided to publicize it a very tiny bit at a time. I do have a previous offense, so I can't really make a big scene this time around. Thank you for your understanding.

In a 2005 announcement, I asked people to forget about something for a while. I'm referring to the game, Mother 3. I've decided to announce what I can say with certainty here before the new year is upon us. First, it looks like the game will make the Spring 2006 release. It'll still be a while until it has a specific release date, but there will be no cancellations or huge delays for it... hopefully. As I announced before, it is being released as a Game Boy Advance game. So you can play it on the currently-mega-popular DS, the Micro, AND the SP. There will be no changes to the above information.

Production-wise, we're crossing the very last mountain. To be honest, my New Year's is filled with winter break work retreats. Though since I can't just come out and shout, "It's totally awesome!" apparently some are whispering, "He doesn't seem so confident." It's sad that they're saying that, but this time I'm going to refrain from shouting from the rooftops and work on it as a artisan and release it as an artisan.

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いまのところ、少なくとも、自分にはおもし゠?い。
それだけは、本気で言えるんですよ。
前2作を倍するシナリオ作業をやってきてますしね。
だから、みんなからも「85点はもらえるかなぁ」と。

年内に以上のインフォメーションをして、
またしばらくは、静かにします。すいません。
ちょっとずつ、最低限の発表だけしていくことにします 。
前科もありますし、大騒ぎはやっぱりできません。どう ぞ、ご理解ください

2005年に発表して、
「しばらく忘れていてくれ」とお願いしたことがありま したよね。
ゲームソフト『MOTHER3』のことです。
来年になる前に、確実に言えることだけでも、ここで伝 えておこうと思います。
まず、2006年の春の発売には間に合いそうです。
詳しい日程の発表は、もう少し先になりますが、
もう、開発中止も大幅な遅れもないで…しょう。
前に発表したとおり、「ゲームボーイアドバンス」のソ フトとして出ます。
ですから、いま大爆発中の「DS」でも、「ミクロ」でも� ��??????????「SP」でも、遊べます。
以上のことについて、変更はありません。

制作としては、最後の一山を越えるところにいます。
実をいうと、ぼくも、冬休みの宿題を抱えての正月です 。
ぼくの口から、なかなか「おもしろいよ！」と言わない もんだから、
「自信ないんじゃないか？」と、一部ではささやかれて いるらしいんですけれどね。
そう言われるのも残念だけど、今回は、とにかく大声を 出さずに、
職人的につくって職人的に出そうと考えています。