Well, I mean we have all the time in the world. You could easily explain. Because I have no idea what the identity of the leakers have anything to do with the potential characters. Also, are you trying to suggest that each individual leaker only knows 1 character? And that each character corresponds with one of the three character slots that ?
Seems out there to me. Seems fishy for someone to only know one of what they are leaking. Also, a leaker is going to be in huge trouble no matter what or how much they leak. I see no reason why they would try to hide one character.
I think he answered it, but allow me to elaborate.
There are at least 4 people who supposedly know the next characters for Smash, two of them are Rogersbase and Stealth. Rogersbase did work for Nintendo of America for some time and likely has some connections. I don't know Stealth's background, but he has been known to have inside information. In one instance, he knew of a press event for Splatoon, there was an NDA, and that a direct was coming soon. This was March 17th or so. Come March 23rd, Gamexplain drops videos of the event and a direct comes on April 1st. Its clear he has a connection. There are two other people who know but I have not verified the info for myself. The fact that this is coming in less than 2 weeks help its plausibility since that would be around the time NoA would have the info to make their trailer.
I agree the rumor is vague, but I believe the reason has to due with Rogersbase (and by extension, Stealth), don't want it spoiled. If you know anything about Rogersbase, its that he is just as much of a fan as everyone else is. He would rather have everyone get excited than to have his time in the sun. He is teasing fans, given everyone a taste and getting excited, rather than outright saying who it is. To summarize, here is the major facts of the rumor as we know them.
-The character is a Nintendo character
-Would have been in Smash eventually, makes sense and is not "shocking" (so its likely a character that is well known/popular)
-We don't know the gender
-It is defiantly not Shantae, Wolf or Shovel Knight
-Will be shown within two weeks (from last Wednesday I believe)
Now the Shovel Knight rumors. That's a different story. I didn't believe it to begin with, but after some digging, I can certain;y say its false. Here are some facts.
-The major killer is the fact that his sources are retail. From the original
Nintendolife article "We've been in touch with multiple sources within the
video game retail sector....who claim that Shovel Knight is indeed about to make to his Smash Bros. début, and there will be an amiibo figure to accompany this grand event." Retailers wouldn't know DLC characters because there is no physical product. Yes, retailers will know things in advance, but this is for inventory and managing shelf space. Retailers would know about amiibos, which is why a random Spain retailer knew ahead of time. The article in question was also written by Liam Robertson who is Tamaki on Twitter.
-The Shovel Knight amiibo was leaked the morning of its showcase. A few hours later (around 9AM), Tamaki tweeted out "Rumour source says that the image of the Shovel Knight amiibo (which I saw before that Twitter posted it FYI) is "not final"." However, if you look at the
reddit thread, you will see that it was the final. So Tamaki/his source was wrong (image below). He later tweeted out that his sources stated Shovel Knight is still coming to Smash (having trouble finding this again)
-Tamaki has been VERY active on twitter saying how Shovel Knight is defiantly coming to Smash. He'll often tweet out Yacht Club announcements and claim how it proves Shovel Knight. Contrast this to Rogersbase who has been silent on the rumor. So who is fishing for attention. Examples:
1 2 3 4 Also, take this with a grain of salt, but the way Tamaki presents himself leads me to believe he is very full of himself. He
tweets out how someone got upset about him in a thread. He then makes 6 more tweets about the subject and retweets a ton of stuff about it.
Example. There's more, but I have to stop looking. Take it for what you will.
-Not a big deal, but I question Tamaki's research abilities. On the interview with
Sourcegaming, he criticized #GamerGate for being more about a fight against Social Justice and not dealing with corruption. The instance he refereed happened in
Jan of 2014 but #Gamergate didn't occur until August of 2014. You can see the InternetAristocrat's video (mirroed)
here which Chronicles #Gamergate.
-Some other things to note: Shovel Knight has yet to be released in Japan, so the rumor is unliekly as Sakurai likely doesn't know this character. From
Sourcegaming:
In regards to Shovel Knight and Shantae being popular in the West: A lot hasn’t changed since I posted the “What is a Shovel Knight” reaction translation. The amiibo and Smash DLC rumors did make its way to Japanese sites. After hearing the rumors, the reactions were a mix of, “Who is he?” and “Hurry up and localize the game!”. There isn’t anything really interesting to report besides that. Sourcegaming also reports that "The character must carry game history with them." for them to be included in Smash. Shovel Knight has only been out for a year.
TL;DR The rumor from Rogersbase and Stealth has some credibility to it. The Shovel Knight rumor doesn't.
if she's to go higher.
