any reason why we have to wait 12 days after the presentation to play byleth?

[~The Koopa King~]

that's the one thing I'm stumped on

 

[Thermithral]

My guess is the remaining students got into a brawl with the students that got into the background stage, and until their campus wide suspension is over, they will not be allowed on the stage. Sakurai would not allow us to receive the stage without the planned characters and thus, we all have to wait it out.

That or, server prep?

 

[~The Koopa King~]

My guess is the remaining students got into a brawl with the students that got into the background stage, and until their campus wide suspension is over, they will not be allowed on the stage. Sakurai would not allow us to receive the stage without the planned characters and thus, we all have to wait it out.

That or, server prep?

but 12 days for server prep?....they must be expecting this to be the most popular character yet and downloaded more than anyone else

 

[Thermithral]

but 12 days for server prep?....they must be expecting this to be the most popular character yet and downloaded more than anyone else

That and the fighters pass might give them that impression. It may also be just be what Sakurai said in the Direct, that nobody known yet and they needed time to prepare the marketing and eshop stuff. Honestly, I just want it to be the 28th already.

 

[~The Koopa King~]

10 days left...ooof yeah i want it to be the 28th already

 

[Venus of the Desert Bloom]

They said in the Direct that many Nintendo branches were not given a heads up about the character (to prevent leaks) so these branches would have to prep themselves prior to launch. Not sure how much of that is bs but it makes some sense. They knew a character was dropping but didn’t know who. So I imagine they have been given the necessary documents and files so the content is available in that region. Plus legal Mumbo jumbo and promo content too.

I honestly don’t mind. I like the uncertainty and hype surrounding the idea that we knew a character was coming but we didn’t know what character as opposed to the usual shadow drop in a Direct or video presentation.

 

[Professor Pumpkaboo]

My guess is the remaining students got into a brawl with the students that got into the background stage, and until their campus wide suspension is over, they will not be allowed on the stage. Sakurai would not allow us to receive the stage without the planned characters and thus, we all have to wait it out.

That or, server prep?

Byleth has to be in class or they will start a war

 

[BrookshireBros]

that's the one thing I'm stumped on

Sakuri literally said in the direct, "Unfortunately Byleth won't be available to play right now, because our team is still working on fixing it."

 

[JarBear]

I do have a theory on this. It is based on some other theories that you may have heard before. This is PURE speculation, but also makes some sense. Also, please note I am not hating on Byleth or Sakurai or anyone, but simply pointing out that something is "fishy" about the whole thing. That is all.

First of all, I think we all can agree that the everything associated with Byleth for the Fighter's Pass does not really add up for a few reasons:

Obvious Reasons:
1.) Byleth is a first party character in which the other fighters have been third party characters
2.) Byleth is from Fire Emblem series, which is already represented in Smash where the other DLC fighters are from NEW franchises.

Interesting Reasons:
3.) Byleth's introduction video is not coy at all, in comparison to the other DLC fighters. Though the degrees vary between the "who's it going to be" or "toying with us" between the 4 other DLC fighters, they still don't out right reveal the fighter right away in their videos. However, Byleth in comparison was pretty much declared right away. Very different.
4.) The Mii costumes are all over the place like Banjo. Banjo's costumes were understandable since it was from a competitor. However, the other DLC fighters either included some costumes that went with the series OR from different series from the company that owns them. Byleth ... not at all.

Power of 6 (Smash 4 "missing" Mii costumes

So here is my theory, which is based on the Theory of 6. A quick summary of this theory is around June or July (E3 2019) Nintendo got their digital sales numbers that showed the Fighter's Pass sold very well. This then jump started the process of working on Fighters Pass 2, or at least to green light it if it had some preliminary work done. (Thing are done years in advanced, so it is not too hard to believe FP2 was worked on either during the time of FP1 being worked on, but was set on "hold" until Nintendo saw that FP1 was profitable. Anyway, the Theory of 6 has to do with the Mii Costumes. Since FP1 was successful and Nintendo began its work (or returned to) FP2, so this meant that not all the Smash 4 DLC returning costumes would have to be released during this pass. Case and point, look at Joker's Mii costumes and Hero's Mii's costumes. Joker had Sega's missing costumes but Hero did not have Squares. Suspect yes?

Also, we can see that not all the "missing" Smash 4 Mii costumes have returned with the FP1, which looked like it was going to be the case starting with Joker.

Ok, so let's look at Byleth. Part of my theory is Byleth could have been considered for the base game. We know the roster was decided on in 2015, but take a look when it came to Three Houses development:

Following the unexpected success of Fire Emblem Awakening for the Nintendo 3DS—which helped save the series from cancellation after flagging sales of earlier entries—the Fire Emblem series gained renewed commercial value and prompted developer Intelligent Systems and publisher Nintendo to bring the series back to home consoles for the first time since Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn in 2007.[10] Concept development for Three Houses began in 2015 following the completion of Fire Emblem Fates for the 3DS.[11] The team originally planned for Three Houses to be another 3DS title. This was scrapped when production began on Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, resulting in Three Houses being briefly put on hold.[11][9]

So it is possible Byleth may have been thought up for the base and would be created via concept art like Greninja was during Smash 4 development. However, the Three Houses was postponed for much later. So instead, Sakurai would want to have this character as a DLC fighter at some point.. The fighter's pass was also planned, so Byleth could have been the rumored "bonus" fighter that was to be added in at the end of the pass OR part of Fighters Pass two if it was green lit. (As discussed this above, that it could have been planned but set on hold to confirm profitability from FP1.) Or if FP1 wasn't that successful and just have Byleth as a standalone DLC fighter like PPlant and that would be it.

So here we are now. FP1 was successful and Nintendo officially announces FP2. What would Nintendo do? Would Byleth be the "face" of FP2 after the fairly known resentment, or at least frustration, of the amount of Fire Emblem characters? The Joker reveal was very effective since it was a third party character that NOBODY expected. It also set the tone for the Pass that ANYONE is possible. There is no way FP2 would garner that excitement if Byleth was the first revealed fighter. It would ring hollow for Nintendo. They obviously want people to pre-order the Pass like the first one with excitement.

What could be done?

Swap!

Yes, swap the fighters around. People have already paid for the FP1, so in a sense, "who cares" who the final one. Instead, the first fighter for the second pass could be the actual number 5. Or even better, I think, would be to have the actual #5 be AFTER the #6. How can Nintendo get the same excitement that came from the first pass? It has to be something that brings "anybody" can get in. How can they do that? A promotion. Either a Mii Costume, Spirit or AT promotion to fighter. There are plenty of rumors for that. But think about it. If Nintendo went that route, it would help "sell" pre-purchasing the whole pass since, again, ANYONE can get in. Nintendo can release the swapped fighter anytime. It can be number 7, 8 or 9. It doesn't matter when!

Now you got a fresh face for FP2, a promotion that excites people AND you take care of Byleth who would NOT remotely gain the excitement at all. Plus, another thing to consider is why Byleth is being released later after the video presentation, weeks later while the other fighters have been released right away. The release date ... on a Tuesday, towards the end of the month ... why not wait to release the video on the day of like the other times? That seems very planned on the timing ... maybe for a direct to reveal the first fighter?!

Anyway, that is my theory regarding Byleth. I would not be too surprised if the first reveal fighter is a promotional fighter. If that does happen, it certainly adds some weight to the theory.

 

[~The Koopa King~]

yeah there is something off about byleth as the final character of V1 no matter how you look at it

 

[kirbsmash]

I do have a theory on this. It is based on some other theories that you may have heard before. This is PURE speculation, but also makes some sense. Also, please note I am not hating on Byleth or Sakurai or anyone, but simply pointing out that something is "fishy" about the whole thing. That is all.

A bit far-fetched.

 

[JarBear]

Lol, of course it is since its pure speculation. It does help fill in some of the "gaps" as well as some reasoning on the "strangeness" surrounding Byleth's spot on the pass.

Or it was always planned all along this way.

 

[Oz o:]

My only hope is that they tweak the move set a slight bit. I don’t mind some startup lag, but at least make some of the moves actually auto cancel. From what we’ve seen so far, Nair seems the only fast move that autocancels, but it’s hitbox seems underwhelming. I’d really like Fair and or Bair to at least autocancel, since it’s not like they don’t have some startup lag and they lack verticality as it is...

 

[Endeziken]

Considering Genesis is going on right now and Nintendo is an official sponsor as well as EVO Japan happening it's possible they wanted to wait for those tournaments before rolling out the update. The delay could also be bug fixes or balancing (it's not just a character and a stage you have mii outfits, music, buffs, nerfs, possible changes to online etc). This is just speculation but considering it is the last fighter of the first fighter pass there is a chance there will be a good chunk of time before the next patch unless there's a major bug that needs to be hot fixed or a small update for new amiibo support or something along those lines.

If we want to be super super optimistic we could choose to believe that since the 2nd fighter pass releases the same day as Byleth there will magically be a 2nd DLC character available. There's magically another direct or announcement at the end of Genesis and Dante or Sora or somebody exciting is Fighter 1 of the FP2. The week of disappointment people have expressed gets erased and everyone is hyped again.

But 3 Houses has been out for some time already compared to say Pokemon Sword/Shield which quite likely will get some representative in Fighter Pass 2. As annoyed as many are about Byleth as the last fighter of the pass it makes more sense fiscally to have a super hype character(s) lead the 2nd Fighter Pass. Were it me, I'd try to release two characters to start off the 2nd Fighter Pass. If you can get people excited about either of those characters they will be a lot more likely to just buy the whole pass.

 

[Folt]

I do have a theory on this. It is based on some other theories that you may have heard before. This is PURE speculation, but also makes some sense. Also, please note I am not hating on Byleth or Sakurai or anyone, but simply pointing out that something is "fishy" about the whole thing. That is all.

First of all, I think we all can agree that the everything associated with Byleth for the Fighter's Pass does not really add up for a few reasons:

Obvious Reasons:
1.) Byleth is a first party character in which the other fighters have been third party characters
2.) Byleth is from Fire Emblem series, which is already represented in Smash where the other DLC fighters are from NEW franchises.

Interesting Reasons:
3.) Byleth's introduction video is not coy at all, in comparison to the other DLC fighters. Though the degrees vary between the "who's it going to be" or "toying with us" between the 4 other DLC fighters, they still don't out right reveal the fighter right away in their videos. However, Byleth in comparison was pretty much declared right away. Very different.
4.) The Mii costumes are all over the place like Banjo. Banjo's costumes were understandable since it was from a competitor. However, the other DLC fighters either included some costumes that went with the series OR from different series from the company that owns them. Byleth ... not at all.

Power of 6 (Smash 4 "missing" Mii costumes

So here is my theory, which is based on the Theory of 6. A quick summary of this theory is around June or July (E3 2019) Nintendo got their digital sales numbers that showed the Fighter's Pass sold very well. This then jump started the process of working on Fighters Pass 2, or at least to green light it if it had some preliminary work done. (Thing are done years in advanced, so it is not too hard to believe FP2 was worked on either during the time of FP1 being worked on, but was set on "hold" until Nintendo saw that FP1 was profitable. Anyway, the Theory of 6 has to do with the Mii Costumes. Since FP1 was successful and Nintendo began its work (or returned to) FP2, so this meant that not all the Smash 4 DLC returning costumes would have to be released during this pass. Case and point, look at Joker's Mii costumes and Hero's Mii's costumes. Joker had Sega's missing costumes but Hero did not have Squares. Suspect yes?

Also, we can see that not all the "missing" Smash 4 Mii costumes have returned with the FP1, which looked like it was going to be the case starting with Joker.

Ok, so let's look at Byleth. Part of my theory is Byleth could have been considered for the base game. We know the roster was decided on in 2015, but take a look when it came to Three Houses development:

Following the unexpected success of Fire Emblem Awakening for the Nintendo 3DS—which helped save the series from cancellation after flagging sales of earlier entries—the Fire Emblem series gained renewed commercial value and prompted developer Intelligent Systems and publisher Nintendo to bring the series back to home consoles for the first time since Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn in 2007.[10] Concept development for Three Houses began in 2015 following the completion of Fire Emblem Fates for the 3DS.[11] The team originally planned for Three Houses to be another 3DS title. This was scrapped when production began on Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, resulting in Three Houses being briefly put on hold.[11][9]

So it is possible Byleth may have been thought up for the base and would be created via concept art like Greninja was during Smash 4 development. However, the Three Houses was postponed for much later. So instead, Sakurai would want to have this character as a DLC fighter at some point.. The fighter's pass was also planned, so Byleth could have been the rumored "bonus" fighter that was to be added in at the end of the pass OR part of Fighters Pass two if it was green lit. (As discussed this above, that it could have been planned but set on hold to confirm profitability from FP1.) Or if FP1 wasn't that successful and just have Byleth as a standalone DLC fighter like PPlant and that would be it.

So here we are now. FP1 was successful and Nintendo officially announces FP2. What would Nintendo do? Would Byleth be the "face" of FP2 after the fairly known resentment, or at least frustration, of the amount of Fire Emblem characters? The Joker reveal was very effective since it was a third party character that NOBODY expected. It also set the tone for the Pass that ANYONE is possible. There is no way FP2 would garner that excitement if Byleth was the first revealed fighter. It would ring hollow for Nintendo. They obviously want people to pre-order the Pass like the first one with excitement.

What could be done?

Swap!

Yes, swap the fighters around. People have already paid for the FP1, so in a sense, "who cares" who the final one. Instead, the first fighter for the second pass could be the actual number 5. Or even better, I think, would be to have the actual #5 be AFTER the #6. How can Nintendo get the same excitement that came from the first pass? It has to be something that brings "anybody" can get in. How can they do that? A promotion. Either a Mii Costume, Spirit or AT promotion to fighter. There are plenty of rumors for that. But think about it. If Nintendo went that route, it would help "sell" pre-purchasing the whole pass since, again, ANYONE can get in. Nintendo can release the swapped fighter anytime. It can be number 7, 8 or 9. It doesn't matter when!

Now you got a fresh face for FP2, a promotion that excites people AND you take care of Byleth who would NOT remotely gain the excitement at all. Plus, another thing to consider is why Byleth is being released later after the video presentation, weeks later while the other fighters have been released right away. The release date ... on a Tuesday, towards the end of the month ... why not wait to release the video on the day of like the other times? That seems very planned on the timing ... maybe for a direct to reveal the first fighter?!

Anyway, that is my theory regarding Byleth. I would not be too surprised if the first reveal fighter is a promotional fighter. If that does happen, it certainly adds some weight to the theory.

yeah there is something off about byleth as the final character of V1 no matter how you look at it

Actually, if we're taking what you say about Byleth being planned for base cast, then for DLC, then there's no way that Byleth wasn't initially planned for the first Fighter's Pass when they weren't able to add him to the base game. Mostly because Sakurai would be working on Byleth through both the base game and the first DLC wave. That he was put at the end of the pass is likely because everyone expected him or another Nintendo character to be revealed first to "get them out of the way", which they would never do for marketing reasons.

 

[Pwnz0rz Man]

Probably because it's more than just Byleth and Mii costumes being added. It's a whole new version update which means bug fixes and character adjustments are likely coming down the pipeline alongside Cuphead and yet another blue haired Fire Emblem protag.