Funny thing is, for all of the fan translations and ROMS of Mother 1 and 3, Nintendo loses a lot of money! So why did Nintendo not release these games!?!!??

EDIT: title should be Funny thing about Earthbound/Mother

Well with Mother 1 the game was being translated in a transition period from NES to SNES so they probably felt the game would not sell well if everyone was upgrading to the 16-bit systems so it does make sense from a marketing stand -point.

Same could be said about Mother 3 as it was released about the time when the DS was gaining popularity in the states, yes the DS has GBA support but I think the sales of Earthbound may also have factored into this.

Again just speculation.

Mother 1 was all translated(most English roms of this one is from the original planned release/official translation) game and was set to release then Nintendo decided to back out because 1. the SNES was on the horizon and 2. RPGs on the NES in the states were not big sellers as for Mother 3 probably because Earthbound/Mother 2 didn't sell too well and Nintendo felt that the series was a lost cause here.

edit: ninja'd