Like I said in my other message, there was probably a mix up with Earthbound Brands being made, but the rights of the Mother series are a little bit more complicated than most Nintendo franchises given that Shigesato Itoi owns (at least some of) them. Like the Ness amiibo credits copyright to both Nintendo and Itoi, which makes me wonder if Itoi could in principle do something like this alone? But this particular case is false news, probably.