Mother 3 was "announced" in 2003. It took more than a year before we heard any news about it. The only news was in 2004. Miyamoto said that Itoi was working on Mother 3, and that was it. After the interview, we heard bupkiss. No screenshots, no nothin', there was absolutely no mention of Mother 3 coming out of Nintendo at all. And this went on for about a whole year. Given that Earthbound 64 was cancelled in late production, many people were very concerned that GBA Mother 3 had dissapeared. I can't say I blame them. Working for 2 years on a game and having absolutely nothing to show for it is very disheartening.

The reason this announcement is so awesome is that the big man himself has announced that Mother 3 is still here, and it's release is imminent. It's very important news.