Nintendo chose the DLC though so I feel like that would be irrelevant to him being picked (unless I'm missing something).
Nintendo also loves doing cute things and heavily appreciates Sakurai after holding him hostage for two games in the series.
Also many of the characters we've gotten thus far Sakurai has a personal attachment to. In fact, there are very few that don't fall under this.
Edit: Correction, it's about even.
Yeah, Smash's DLC has gone on plenty long; I think it'd be okay to end it after FP2, barring a few more spirit events and balance patches.
Absolutely not, and the hype for more DLC isn't dead just because there are gaps between reveals. This is yet again proof of Smash's weird isolation and echo chamber in terms of only experiencing things from their one game franchise and not getting similar experiences from others.
Tekken 7 first released on March 18th, 2015. The first Season Pass was available on June 1st, 2017. That means the Tekken 7 was relatively a vanilla game experience for over two years before it got more content, and that content made them a crap-ton of money for way less investment than a new game, so they have kept doing it. Their most recent DLC was a new character and stage just this March, on the 23rd.
I REPEAT: Tekken 7 had almost no additional content for over TWO YEARS, yet they still have made so much money once they started that they haven't stopped even into 2021.
Put that into perspective for Smash for a moment. Sure, Tekken is popular (really popular I might add), but a two year gap of major content updates? Also, eventually Tekken will run out of beloved characters to include and will have to move on. And yet, you guys think Smash will suffer from a lack of hype just because a couple months went by and the most recent addition wasn't earth-shatteringly hype? A game with an ever-growing list of character requests that will never have the same issues as any other iconic series within it's genre?
You can of course look into Street Fighter V, Dragon Ball FighterZ, basically any Blazblue title, Samurai Showdown and Soul Calibur 6 for more proof of the success of DLC and how normal it is to have multiple months of time in-between new DLCs and information on them. In fact, Capcom is a great example: They usually only made announcements at major events like Capcom Pro Tour, E3 and EVO with sometimes some others sprinkled in. Recently, they have taken a better approach where they basically have their own Sakurai Presents from time to time for both Monster Hunter and SFV in which they reveal more than one thing and have extended breakdowns of the coming content.
Basically, almost EVERY company that does DLC now only gives you information in portions throughout it's development, but teases a Season Pass or a Roadmap or some **** so that you know that more is coming and roughly how much more, just not exactly WHAT that more is. Smash isn't doing anything new in this regard, it's just still new to people who's only major experience with DLC is with Ultimate, which is on those of you who that applies to for having a lack of experience. The reason why you needn't worry about a gap in time between more content is because it's literally designed around said gap.
Just look at what we do here: we are here regularly talking about who or what the next character could be, and that speculation is built out of a desire for more content and our hype for the next reveal. The second anything that COULD contain the next DLC character is announced, social media ****ing explodes with comments and content, all flooded with hype and speculation on who it is and with little care about anything else that could be announced. The day of everyone gets all ready with their reactions and get super stoked and just can't wait to see who it is. When it's a crazy hype pick, the internet breaks with how excited people are; if they aren't as hype, it's still generally flooded with intrigue over what gameplay will be like and what specifics we don't know yet. The anticipation for the Sakurai Presents builds and builds until finally we get that beloved man we love breaking down the most recent character and telling us what they come with and when we can get them. Then the desire to play them builds up until they release, people buy and play the ever-loving **** out of them and everyone has a great time. Content creators overwhelm us with stuff to watch, from funny compilations to pro play to glitches and new tech and more and more that even when we aren't playing we are still consuming media about that new character well after their new luster starts to fade. Then finally, the smoke has cleared and everyone realizes we still have more DLC and the cycle begins anew with the speculation and the waiting game giving the needed reprieve from the insane amount of hype drummed up for each new character.
DLC is an amazing marketing tool: the concept of taking a game that already exists and has a dedicated fanbase and adding new content and making some changes to the gameplay for a smaller price than a brand-new game. It's like putting on a fresh coat of paint on your walls in a room: it's still the same room and the same house, but it looks nicer and makes you want to spend more time in that room for a while. It's perfectly engineered to make money by bringing back people who already want a reason to keep playing the game. For fighting games, now you have brand new matchups to learn and possible a new character to main; FPS get new guns to try out and maps to memorize, and so on and so forth throughout each genre. Thus, there is absolutely no reason to worry about reception in the event of more DLC after Pass 2, because most of you guys have somehow convinced yourself it won't happen, so when it does the internet will explode and we'll be right back on board the hype train.
I also feel like this weird 'we don't need more DLC' take stems from either selfishness or from an odd inappropriate application of sympathy. Taking on the entitlement first, sometimes I feel like this community thinks it should have new content rotating out the door every ****ing month, and yet still moan and groan when it wasn't exactly what they wanted as an individual. People need to realize that content takes time to make no matter how many people are working on it, and the better the quality and larger the quantity, the more time it's gonna take to get it done. How many people have forgotten that, much like Tekken 7 and SFV, Ultimate JUST had new DLC in March with Pyra/Mythra? It's been just over two months, I think you can wait a bit longer until E3 y'all. Complaining about Pyra/Mythra not being hype? Dude, we just had one of the most iconic villains in gaming history and the funny block man himself before this, I think you can let this one slide.
As for the weird sympathy thing, I think a lot of people think Sakurai is slaving away and they want him to take a break, but he's been on record multiple times stating he is really enjoying himself and I think it's clear he realizes this is his biggest (and likely last) opportunity to make Smash as big as it ever can be. Do you know what kind of motivation that is? A series you crafted of the biggest and most-loved faces in gaming beating the **** outta each other is at an all-time high and you have the support to get in almost any character you can get your hands on AND it's much less taxing to do so since it's all DLC? AND you, the company who owns the game, and all the third party companies involved are making absurd amounts of moolah? Sakurai is living the dream right now, why in the hell would he want to stop? Hell, during the pandemic, he got to work from home and thus theoretically spend more time with his wife. Damn man, what is there to feel sorry about other than the community being insatiable troglodytes and that for a moment the pro community measured a bit too high on the pedometer?
This wild ride ain't over yet bois. Yee-haw!
