See
GoodGrief741
EricTheGamerman
and
StormC
this is what I was talking about with the list of points I made: Geno would bring more hype and sales than Sora or DQ or Crono or literally any other Square pick. Why is that? Because the fan demand is there and because how we view the company is important.
If Sora or a DQ Rep or Crono or hell even Gex (I love that lizard though) got in, fans would not be happy. Sure, those who love the character might be excited, but overall the majority of the Smash fanbase would rage at the fact that Geno get snubbed a third goddamn time, and this time with Sakurai's tweet all that hate would go straight to Nintendo for letting us down so hard. It would be a massive swell of 'Seriously Nintendo, you can get any Square character in the game and it's literally setup perfectly for us to finally get Geno, and you DON'T GIVE US HIM! YOU SHOULD HAVE LET SAKURAI DO HIS THING!' and hundreds of other variations of the same thing. Contrast that to if Geno makes it; would Sora or Crono fans be that upset about it? Not even remotely, because as many of you have said, Sora is part of the casual audience and as many of those here who are showing why Geno is the most likely pick have already stated, most of Sora's audience comes from competitor consumers. The number of fans that will be like 'Oh man, I really wanted Sora so I had a reason to buy a Switch' is so low that you could likely count it on both your hands and the number of people who would actually get angry is likely not much higher.
As for DQ, even Japan doesn't want a DQ rep in Smash, and Japan is the only one who cares about DQ. Japan wants Geno, the West wants Geno, EU wants Geno...like literally, everyone wants Geno. If Geno doesn't make it in, people will find the theme of 'Everyone is Here' to be a joke. Seriously, I wouldn't be this upset myself, but a lot of people would. Wouldn't you rather do the reverse and have all those people sing your praises about how you are the company most in touch with you fans? If Geno is announced, people will rub it meme-style in the faces of fans of competitors for YEARS! This isn't just Sakurai, whom we love regardless, this is the company of Nintendo. Just because they have a good record right now for giving us what we want doesn't mean they will continue to do so, which is why many of us are nervous despite the evidence. What better way to maintain your image and make cashola to boot than to give us Geno?