The Official Thread For the Sal Romano/Gematsu Leak

[CrusherMania1592]

While it's easy to look at it that way, and this all seems important now, once the game drops, what's it going to matter if the leak was wrong or right? No-one really cares about the old Brawl/Melee leaks anymore. I doubt Sal Romano's leak will be considered again until three or four years from now when we get a Smash 5 announcement and people start validating every new leak that pops up by referring back to this one.

I think it might be time to step back for a while, y'know? I think we're takin' this too seriously.

Guess I'm thankful that I chose to save myself form the insanity so-called leak and wait for E-3.

 

[powerprotoman]

just a fun reminder that nintendo did change their e3 plans they origonly wanted to show off zelda u but were not able to (i forget the reasons)

 

[Luigi#1]

just a fun reminder that nintendo did change their e3 plans they origonly wanted to show off zelda u but were not able to (i forget the reasons)

He got the leak a week before E3 I think. So, yeah, it is possible that he got old files though.

 

[ChunkyBeef]

He got the leak a week before E3 I think. So, yeah, it is possible that he got old files though.

I don't mean to sound like that guy, but it sounds to me like people are making excuses.

Any port in a storm, I guess.

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

I don't mean to sound like that guy, but it sounds to me like people are making excuses.

Any port in a storm, I guess.

Is it really an excuse when we've seen it happen overall in reality?

I'm not saying "Yes, believe the leak!", but it's not a very good knock against him here at all. Can he help it when his information gets outdated? Or that he may have been fired due to the leaks?(well, the second one technically is his fault, but you get what I mean) The overall point is, these things happen but don't prove the leak wrong very well at all.

We need a lot better evidence to prove it wrong, or actual, things that outright destroy it. Something like Palutena disconfirmed as an Assist Trophy(or Chrom, actually. Palutena was somewhat blatantly going to be playable after we saw Sakurai's clear obsession with the character as is...).

 

[Luigi#1]

I don't mean to sound like that guy, but it sounds to me like people are making excuses.

Any port in a storm, I guess.

I thought that too. But wouldn't anything, correct or not, sound like an excuse? It's impossible to not have hypothetical arguments, with the amount of info we have.
Okay, I'm gonna have an argument with myself to try to conclude anything. Sometimes it works.

I think that those that completely are convinced need to be careful. But you also shouldn't be too careful, as there was a Brawl leak with the entire roster. BUT that leak was right before the game came out so it would be more likely to be right. BUT fake leaks are also more common by the end of the game. However, Sal is credible, and leaked info before. But we don't know his source, it could be a different source. On the other hand, wouldn't Sal listen to his source if it were the same one? He did listen to this one. Although at first Sal was skeptical about the leaker. Infact, he said it was unlikely that he would be correct. So he would listen to one that leaked correct information before, but he was skeptical.
Yay, we learned his source this time is likely a different one. But I could be subconsciously biased, so feel free to counteract this statement.

 

[cmbsfm]

what if every character from the leak except 1 was in the game. would this leak be considered legit and or fake. I'm just curious.

 

[Luigi#1]

what if every character from the leak except 1 was in the game. would this leak be considered legit and or fake. I'm just curious.

Fake. The leak would be officially wrong. But that would be insanely unlikely for all but one of the characters he said wasn't in. Unless Chrorus Men weren't in. Still.

 

[Gameboi834]

what if every character from the leak except 1 was in the game. would this leak be considered legit and or fake. I'm just curious.

I think it depends on which one it is. If Sal isn't super big on the Smash scene he might not have known about Sakurai's Villager comment, so he would have thought Mega, Mac and Villager were obvious. Off of the success that Xenoblades, X/Y, and Awakening I can see why he'd think their respective protagonists would get in, and Mii and Pac-Man (after learning about Namco's involvement) make sense for being popular, well-known video game entities. That leaves the Wii Fit Trainer and Choir Boys. I feel like he was just looking around his room for a funny, off-the-wall character if he guessed WFT, and Choir Boys would be in the same vein.

So I feel like if any one were to not be included to consider the leak fake it would have to be Choir Boys, if at all.

 

[MasterOfKnees]

what if every character from the leak except 1 was in the game. would this leak be considered legit and or fake. I'm just curious.

I'd still call it real. It really seems like the information is from early development, so just because something changed mid-development doesn't mean that the leaker didn't have a real source.

The Pokébeach leak for X & Y was circa 70% true 30% false and it was obviously still from a legitimate source.

 

[ChunkyBeef]

Is it really an excuse when we've seen it happen overall in reality?

I'm not saying "Yes, believe the leak!", but it's not a very good knock against him here at all. Can he help it when his information gets outdated? Or that he may have been fired due to the leaks?(well, the second one technically is his fault, but you get what I mean) The overall point is, these things happen but don't prove the leak wrong very well at all.

We need a lot better evidence to prove it wrong, or actual, things that outright destroy it. Something like Palutena disconfirmed as an Assist Trophy(or Chrom, actually. Palutena was somewhat blatantly going to be playable after we saw Sakurai's clear obsession with the character as is...).

I'm not saying people should or shouldn't believe the leak, but to think that Sakurai, Nintendo and Bamco are so disorganized that they didn't have a game plan solidified years ago is kinda insulting to them. The guy's done this three different times. I think he's aware of what he can and can't do with the time he's got, and I don't think, especially in Smash's case, that the development landscape changes particularly often outside the first year and a half or so. The excuse that 'Oh, it's old news.' or 'Oh, things are always changing.' are flimsy ones.

Sakurai knew what he was showing at E3 '13. Nothing changed. Sakurai knew what he was showing at the last Direct. Nothing changed. Sakurai knows what he's showing at E3 '14. Nothing's going to change.

If any of those things were going to change in any capacity, it certainly wouldn't have been days before the show.

I thought that too. But wouldn't anything, correct or not, sound like an excuse? It's impossible to not have hypothetical arguments, with the amount of info we have.

Sadly, the lack of info is thanks to the leaker. I'm not entirely certain why only the characters were important to the leaker, but I deduced ages ago that the reason we didn't get a whole lot of information about new Smash stuff outside of characters was because the leaker was likely a Japanese-to-English translator working for NoA with access to trophy information.

I think that those that completely are convinced need to be careful. But you also shouldn't be too careful, as there was a Brawl leak with the entire roster. BUT that leak was right before the game came out so it would be more likely to be right. BUT fake leaks are also more common by the end of the game. However, Sal is credible, and leaked info before. But we don't know his source, it could be a different source. On the other hand, wouldn't Sal listen to his source if it were the same one? He did listen to this one. Although at first Sal was skeptical about the leaker. Infact, he said it was unlikely that he would be correct. So he would listen to one that leaked correct information before, but he was skeptical.
Yay, we learned his source this time is likely a different one. But I could be subconsciously biased, so feel free to counteract this statement.

Sal is credible, sure, since he's just the guy that passes on the leaks that he receives. That doesn't make it any less fishy to me, 'cause why just leak to Sal Romano? Does the leaker assume it'll naturally spread out to other outlets? That says to me that either the leaker didn't know (or care) any. Or, simply, that Sal Romano doesn't have a leaker and it's all made up. I've said so many times that Sal Romano said he had 'unlikely predictions', but no indicator that he had a leak, and then backpedaled when he was right and magically made it news, and I still find that fishy as hell. The fact that we have no actual evidence of anything is similarly fishy, and the only 'proof' we have is a guy nodding and saying 'Yeah, this is legit. Believe this guy.'. Anyone who's willing to not be skeptical when two guys, with absolutely no evidence besides some head nodding and handshaking, say that you should believe them is naive and I've got a bridge to sell them.

Nothing that's come after the E3 leaks has been entirely convincing to me, but I figure this coming E3 is going to either show Sal Romano was right all along, or it's going to debunk the leak completely. I hope it's the latter and not the former, myself.

 

[Deleted member]

Wow, people went nuts with Ike's reveal, I don't believe this "leak" but this doesn't hurt/help its chances in any form
Anyway, I wanted to point that it wasn't hard for him to predict these Newcomers, I predicted 5/6 with the exception being . Sakurai said before E3 2013 that: "A Capcom character might appear in the game", it isn't hard to guess which one would be; AC is hugely popular and it's the first franchise that you think bout that didn't have a rep; Little Mac is very popular and Punch-Out!! got the Wii reboot after Brawl; No need to mention "Pokemon from X/Y"; As for Rosalina, she was the only Mario char that made sense to me: Galaxy was a success, she is playable in 3D World and the other 2(Waluigi and Toad), just, doesn't make sense; as for the unconfirmed ones: Palutena(part of the only leak I believe+Sakurai's bias), Chrom(I would go with Robin for Awakening rep, but he seems the most popular choice), Shulk(Xenoblade on the Western only happened because of fan outcry+"X' coming this year), Mii(Nintendo wants to throw them down our throats those things), Pac-Man(if Bamco gets a rep, it's him, enough Lloyd requests).
So, yeah, I predicted 5/6 newcomers just like him and before anyone argues about Rosalina, if you search a little 1/10 wishlists contains her, with the others being full of Waluigi/Toad

 

[Lautsuu~]

I don't believe in the leak. Chorus Men might have been added to divert attention, you know, like...a false lead? They seem very unlikely, to me. But hey, each to their own.
I think the rest of the characters were because they were popular choices. Wii Fit Trainer could a lucky guess, as believe it or not, a couple of people mentioned her in passing.

 

[Morbi]

Wow, people went nuts with Ike's reveal, I don't believe this "leak" but this doesn't hurt/help its chances in any form
Anyway, I wanted to point that it wasn't hard for him to predict these Newcomers, I predicted 5/6 with the exception being . Sakurai said before E3 2013 that: "A Capcom character might appear in the game", it isn't hard to guess which one would be; AC is hugely popular and it's the first franchise that you think bout that didn't have a rep; Little Mac is very popular and Punch-Out!! got the Wii reboot after Brawl; No need to mention "Pokemon from X/Y"; As for Rosalina, she was the only Mario char that made sense to me: Galaxy was a success, she is playable in 3D World and the other 2(Waluigi and Toad), just, doesn't make sense; as for the unconfirmed ones: Palutena(part of the only leak I believe+Sakurai's bias), Chrom(I would go with Robin for Awakening rep, but he seems the most popular choice), Shulk(Xenoblade on the Western only happened because of fan outcry+"X' coming this year), Mii(Nintendo wants to throw them down our throats those things), Pac-Man(if Bamco gets a rep, it's him, enough Lloyd requests).
So, yeah, I predicted 5/6 newcomers just like him and before anyone argues about Rosalina, if you search a little 1/10 wishlists contains her, with the others being full of Waluigi/Toad

I do agree with your sentiment, it is possible. But Wii Fit Trainer is the definitive reason that most people even devoted time into discussing the leak. I also have a question, as someone who speculated in favor of Villager, were you aware of Sakurai's stance on him in regards to Smash prior to e3 2013?

 

[Pieman0920]

I don't believe in the leak. Chorus Men might have been added to divert attention, you know, like...a false lead? They seem very unlikely, to me. But hey, each to their own.
I think the rest of the characters were because they were popular choices. Wii Fit Trainer could a lucky guess, as believe it or not, a couple of people mentioned her in passing.

Who mentioned the Wii Fit Trainer in passing? When talking about the leak, and the fact that almost no one guessed the Wii Fit Trainer, I only put the qualifier of "almost" as a sign of good faith, as I had actually never seen a single person guess her (or him).

 

[ChunkyBeef]

Who mentioned the Wii Fit Trainer in passing? When talking about the leak, and the fact that almost no one guessed the Wii Fit Trainer, I only put the qualifier of "almost" as a sign of good faith, as I had actually never seen a single person guess her (or him).

Pretty sure we've discussed in this very topic the two or three people that we could find evidence for actually saying ANYTHING about her, even joking or in passing. So it's not entirely impossible for her to get guessed, just most people were, understandably so, blinded by the idea of all the more popular picks and guesses that no-one really expected anything like that. I mean, even WFT's reveal got swept under the rug.

 

[Deleted member]

I do agree with your sentiment, it is possible. But Wii Fit Trainer is the definitive reason that most people even devoted time into discussing the leak. I also have a question, as someone who speculated in favor of Villager, were you aware of Sakurai's stance on him in regards to Smash prior to e3 2013?

No, I wasn't very much aware of Smash speculation until the beginning of this year and even after I read it, I didn't understand the reasoning considering he added characters like G&W and ROB who aren't very suitable for battle, I guess he feared what happened with the Villager this time

 

[Morbi]

No, I wasn't very much aware of Smash speculation until the beginning of this year and even after I read it, I didn't understand the reasoning considering he added characters like G&W and ROB who aren't very suitable for battle, I guess he feared what happened with the Villager this time

To be honest; I thought the same exact thing. I thought it wasn't a plausible excuse, so Villager didn't really surprise me either.

Who mentioned the Wii Fit Trainer in passing? When talking about the leak, and the fact that almost no one guessed the Wii Fit Trainer, I only put the qualifier of "almost" as a sign of good faith, as I had actually never seen a single person guess her (or him).

The "almost" portion isn't necessarily in good faith, it is to remain objective.

 

[Headcrab Jackalope]

So um, I'm not too well-informed about the leak, but is there any way that the leaker only knew about E3 and simply guessed the rest of the characters?

 

[Deleted member]

So um, I'm not too well-informed about the leak, but is there any way that the leaker only knew about E3 and simply guessed the rest of the characters?

That's something I kinda of believe, the "leak" seemed pretty accurate until he dropped the second part with "Pokemon from X/Y" bull**** and I became more skeptical about it, th Choir Boys don't help either, they're not the main characters nor they are recurring in the series, saying that they are being included because of "uniqueness" really doesn't matter, it's like if we got Zelda instead of Link in 64 just because "it needed more females", representation should always come before anything, if not, we would have a bland roster like Mario Kart's with Metal Mario and Pink Golden Peach, just because they would unique, doesn't mean they should be added instead of more IMPORTANT and RELEVANT characters

 

[Pieman0920]

So um, I'm not too well-informed about the leak, but is there any way that the leaker only knew about E3 and simply guessed the rest of the characters?

Yes, it is possible. The Paul Gale thing for Sony Smash is an instance where the leaker knew legitimate unrevealed information, but then he, or his source, started to make up stuff later on.

 

[Luigi#1]

So...um...
Is there anybody who thinks this leak has no chance of being true? I know some are 100% thinking it's true, but anyone think the opposite.
I'm neutral so eh.

 

[Deleted member]

So...um...
Is there anybody who thinks this leak has no chance of being true? I know some are 100% thinking it's true, but anyone think the opposite.
I'm neutral so eh.

The only thing that helps the "leak" stand is WFT, but as discussed, some could have predicted her, let's wait for E3 to see if anything changes

 

[grizby2]

i like to believe that the leak intentionally had fake characters in there with some real ones, to avoid legal issues or something.

 

[Deleted member]

i like to believe that the leak intentionally had fake characters in there with some real ones, to avoid legal issues or something.

I think that could be possible, if I remember correctly, that Pokemon X/Y rumour that got almost everything right said some of those things were fake to try to avoid Nintendo realize that it was "leaked"

 

[ChunkyBeef]

i like to believe that the leak intentionally had fake characters in there with some real ones, to avoid legal issues or something.

See, that goes out the window the moment he accurately called out Wii Fit Trainer. That kinda narrows down who to fire fairly quickly.

 

[grizby2]

See, that goes out the window the moment he accurately called out Wii Fit Trainer. That kinda narrows down who to fire fairly quickly.

I was referring to the ones that weren't announced yet as the fake ones (pac-man, mii). not to say they aren't viable choices.

 

[Pieman0920]

Eh, I think the XY leaks were just human error. Its possible that only having their hands on things for a brief second, or only getting in contact with their sources once could make some of the minor things distorted. Kind of like how the SF x Tekken's leak originally had Christie and Leo as a team, but in the end it was actually Christie and Lei, though that was probably a really simple, yet pretty big, typo.

Edit: Faking Pac-Man or Mii would be pretty dumb, since they have really high chances as it is. Its the Wii Fit Trainer (or the Chorus Kids I guess) who would fit in line with that sort of thing.

 

[Luigi#1]

I was referring to the ones that weren't announced yet as the fake ones (pac-man, mii). not to say they aren't viable choices.

....Okay, so he'll be vague with Pokemon X/Y but reveal WFT.
And that would just be like "Well, we don't now which ones are in or not, so we can't go by it" thing.
And people won't believe it after that, except those completely believing in it and taking any excuse that Sal's leaker has to offer.

 

[PlTe]

....Okay, so he'll be vague with Pokemon X/Y but reveal WFT.
And that would just be like "Well, we don't now which ones are in or not, so we can't go by it" thing.
And people won't believe it after that, except those completely believing in it and taking any excuse that Sal's leaker has to offer.

I believe this has been said before, but just because "Pokemon from X/Y" was vague doesn't mean he's fake. At the time the list was acquired by Sal's tipper, maybe they didn't decide on a Gen 6 Pokemon to be in the games. After the information was acquired, whenever it was, Greninja was the overall chosen character, and was programmed into the game. Same thing happened with Ike in Brawl.

 

[Pieman0920]

I may be wrong about it, but given the time frame that the leak was apparently made, it would have been before X/Y were released, and Greninja wasn't even revealed. The second part of the leak just wasn't released until much later, for some reason. Now that may be sketchy, but if it was indeed stated back then with the original 6, the suspicious thing would be to actually know who Greninja was. Alternatively, the source just didn't care enough about new Pokemon to know who it was, which wouldn't be too surprising either.

 

[Luigi#1]

I believe this has been said before, but just because "Pokemon from X/Y" was vague doesn't mean he's fake. At the time the list was acquired by Sal's tipper, maybe they didn't decide on a Gen 6 Pokemon to be in the games. After the information was acquired, whenever it was, Greninja was the overall chosen character, and was programmed into the game. Same thing happened with Ike in Brawl.

Never said it makes it fake it just rules out the he was vague so he wouldn't be found by Nintendo thing.

 

[Neo Zero]

I posted this in E3, but it could also relate to Sal

It includes slots for every one of his predicted newcomers. Shulk would likely go with the RPG row, Chorus Men or Mii would go beside WFT, Palutena would go beside Pit, Chrom would go in the same row as Marth and Ike, Mega Man would be in the last row around where Sonic is, Villager and WFT are seen, Little Mac likely would go on the 2nd row which seems to be the dedicated retro row (at least seeing as how it's the area KI and Metroid are), Greninja would be where the Pokemon are and Pac Man would go in the same area Mega Man is. Slot wise this would suggest 53-54 Characters (depends on random button). I talk more about it in E3 but this is about Sal. Also worth noting is this directly conflicts with RosalinaX

 

[Vann Accessible]

I think RosalinaX was deconfirmed wasn't it?

Regarding the elect screen, II wonder why would they make 3 rows of characters as opposed to four or five? But then again, if real, it's probably just for the E3 demo.

Interesting.

 

[Neo Zero]

Other nifty things include the little circles under Free For All, likely having to do with where you are in terms of setting up a match. Characters would be stage 2 as 2 circles are filled. That would suggest there's another option between Stage and Characters.

17/18 slots per row is a lot. Note I only say 18 due to the likely hood of a last column if this select screen is symmetrical. If it is not, it would feature 17 slots per row. Colors could pertain to the news we got in the PotD about teams no longer requiring you to be in a certain color.

 

[ChunkyBeef]

Other nifty things include the little circles under Free For All, likely having to do with where you are in terms of setting up a match. Characters would be stage 2 as 2 circles are filled. That would suggest there's another option between Stage and Characters.

17/18 slots per row is a lot. Note I only say 18 due to the likely hood of a last column if this select screen is symmetrical. If it is not, it would feature 17 slots per row. Colors could pertain to the news we got in the PotD about teams no longer requiring you to be in a certain color.

Before we go too crazy, I'd like to mention a few things about the pictures:

1.) They were found on 4Chan.
2.) The guy who found the pictures and posted them on 4Chan found them on TinyPic apparently.

Not to say that this debunks the thing, but just a friendly reminder to take this with a grain of salt. Someone should try to find the TinyPic account and see if it links back to Gematsu.

 

[Neo Zero]

Before we go too crazy, I'd like to mention a few things about the pictures:

1.) They were found on 4Chan.
2.) The guy who found the pictures and posted them on 4Chan found them on TinyPic apparently.

Not to say that this debunks the thing, but just a friendly reminder to take this with a grain of salt. Someone should try to find the TinyPic account and see if it links back to Gematsu.

I knew about 4chan, and even mentioned it in the E3 leak, but I had no idea it was from TinyPic. Like you said though, this neither confirms or denies it but I will say this makes things very interesting.

 

[Pieman0920]

The roster, be it fake or not, is likely for 50 characters. Its three rows of what seem to cap out at 17, with the bottom right being a random select spot. There likely no row beyond Link/Pikachu/Mario(?)'s and the bottom right one seems to be not be a locked box. If its not Mega Man there, its a random box. If it is Mega Man though, then there could be more. It the Gematsu leak is true, it doesn't conflict with this, since there's a spot for Palutena and Chrom, and Pac Man (Mii, Shulk, and the Chorus Kids don't need to be lined up to anything really). The screen also suggests one more DK Rep, one more Pokemon Rep, and one more Metroid Rep. Also, if that is a random box, and you hold the Pac-Man stuff true, then its likely Snake's out, though Mega Man could be to the left of Sonic, though I doubt that.

Edit: Oh yeah, and it would also heavily imply Ivysaur and Squirtle are out.

 

[RouffWestie]

So where's Bowser in that picture?

 

[ChunkyBeef]

The roster, be it fake or not, is likely for 50 characters. Its three rows of what seem to cap out at 17, with the bottom right being a random select spot. There likely no row beyond Link/Pikachu/Mario(?)'s and the bottom right one seems to be not be a locked box. If its not Mega Man there, its a random box. If it is Mega Man though, then there could be more. It the Gematsu leak is true, it doesn't conflict with this, since there's a spot for Palutena and Chrom, and Pac Man (Mii, Shulk, and the Chorus Kids don't need to be lined up to anything really). The screen also suggests one more DK Rep, one more Pokemon Rep, and one more Metroid Rep. Also, if that is a random box, and you hold the Pac-Man stuff true, then its likely Snake's out, though Mega Man could be to the left of Sonic, though I doubt that.

Excellent analysis there. Brings a lot of hope for those of us holding out for more than what's been leaked through Sal/Gematsu.

So where's Bowser in that picture?

The consensus I've seen seems to be that this is simply the demo character select screen.