Still no news on Smash or even Splatoon 3 getting a Chinese release? May as well release 3 at this point
Nope. Not yet. No sign of Splatoon
2 AFAIK, and I keep an eagle eye on what Zhuge posts re: approvals.
Which is kinda weird on one hand (given that Nintendo and Tencent introduced the Switch on Chinese social media with the base game Smash renders back in 2019), but on the other hand...
I feel that the potential Approval Hell is the main reason why. They're probably going to submit Smash, but at this point, the vast majority of people who are interested have probably imported it.
Tryna get all them Korok seeds to see if one looks like Winnie the Pooh, huh? Quite the thankless job.
Worst thing about that, it's actually pretty accurate. From what I understand
the government has a littany of requirements for licensing. And they go through every single inch of game code probably tens of times over. Also, the government kinda shot itself in the foot when they approved a lot of clones (a lot of them from Tencent - that's a major reason why many Chinese hardcore players dislike Tencent and prefer Japanese / Western games over Chinese games), so they are trying to get rid of that reputation.
It's really quite telling when Tennis Aces, Crafted World and Ring Fit were sent in for approval later than BotW - but all got approved by 2020's end, while BotW is still stuck.
A lot of multiplayer-focused online games have player bases like this. A lot of my friends who were specifically into LoL, Starcraft, Counterstrike, etc. rarely ventured outside of those games. Fortnite being aimed at a younger audience doesn't help, as a lot of these crossover characters existed (and often times peaked in popularity) long before Fortnite
It's the same with FIFA and Madden I believe (as well as other sports games) - a lot of people who buy consoles for FIFA will rarely if ever buy other games for example. Most of those examples are also importantly social games as
NonSpecificGuy
noted - the strength of
Metcalfe's Law (in this case, "My friends play it, so I'm more likely to play it too and join the fun!") is not to be underestimated. The trade off is often that stories take somewhat of a backseat compared to the PvP.
streetfighter.fandom.com
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