Geno (♥♪!?): Return of the Starsend Savior

[MrGameguycolor]

If this hasn't already been said and nothing against fans of Paper Mario: TOK, but getting Geno in Smash would be the biggest step towards getting a new kind of Mario RPG.

Not a sequel to the original, just a new one period considering the current state of Mario RPG's...

 

[Wazygoose]

Ring Fit Trainer is the horseman of the apocalypse of FP2. Plenty would be aghast but no one would be shocked Nintendo did something like that, and everyone’s ideas and hopes about FP2 would go right out the window.

 

[super88cloud]

Feel free to take that pessimism somewhere that isn't in this thread.

I'm not asking you to leave, I'm asking your pessimism to leave.

This is Smash DLC Speculation baby, and we have no room for that here.

Why?
I think it's just a balanced historical way of seeing things based on previous patterns.
Plant was a wtf and meh choice.(love how it plays)
Joker is hype for some people.
Hero is hype for japan and rest of the world,also had a game coming.
Banjo was super hype.
Terry was an ok choice( love how he plays).
Byleth was a terrible choice.
Min min was a meh choice(love how she plays).
It just doesnt make sense that from here on out nintendo is gonna be different and just drop hype bombs on us every dlc.
That's why i think that the three more characters choices are gonna be relatively hype and two more are gonna of the meh category.

If you meant geno, well, he has lots of supporters,including yours truly, but a lot of haters(mostly young people) and then there's the casual people who just dont know about him.
It's not pessimism. I just base myself on freaking patterns.
I like the hype train but i dont drink the kool aid completely.
I don't tell anyone to hype check themselves because you're mostly grown adults.
Tl:dr
Past smash choice patterns make me doubt of super hype character passes because a corp is still a cold company.

But Byleth and Min-Min are their own characters so it's not only an investment in their IPs but carries significantly less risk. Someone like Hero or Terry is much more risky in the grand scheme of things than Byleth and Min-Min because Nintendo actually owns Fire Emblem and ARMS.

So literal,third parties are" go big" and " or go home" are their own ips.
\ /
@-@
^
#

 

[RetrogamerMax]

There was a problem fetching the tweet

It is time for us to do the pointing and the laughing

Starfire: Hey! That was my quote! But yes, it is time to do the pointing and the laughing.

 

[Fatmanonice]

super88cloud

Yes. Even Sakurai has mentioned the difficulty of getting together all these third party IPs and how it would probably be impossible to do this again. This is why Ultimate kind of is now or never if they want to "go big or go home" for third parties.

 

[super88cloud]

super88cloud

Yes. Even Sakurai has mentioned the difficulty of getting together all these third party IPs and how it would probably be impossible to do this again. This is why Ultimate kind of is now or never if they want to "go big or go home" for third parties.

I know that, and ninty does have enough pull( that and the kingmaker effect,plus that sweet dlc licensing money) but i really doubt they're gonna use it all the time (byleth,arms)

 

[MattOnwheels]

Here we go! Will Nintendo grant us mercy or spit in our collective salads yet again like the Bourgeosie class they represent? Find out on tonight's exiting episode of GENOBALL Z! TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT!

(Dub by FATI-MAN-SION)

Only Toonami!

 

[CopperKoopa]

I'm not even expecting a big direct at this point. Maybe an Indie direct and a few minis, but I'm expecting a Twitter announcement for the Mario remasters.

I'd love if Sakurai hosted a Smash direct, there hasn't been one of those in forever.

I know Nintendo lives and dies on its hype cycle, but I would love if they announced clearer details on what we're getting for the rest of the pass. Vague silhouettes of the fighters, sneaky screenshots of the stages, maybe a suggestion or a sound clip that points to what music we would be getting... Other fighting games have done it with some success. I'm pretty sure Mortal Kombat showed off blurry silhouettes of everybody, and Street Fighter 5 at least announced a few of the fighters directly and then implied what we would be getting for the last few. I'm not an expert from the FGC, but haven't a lot fighting games given us hints to hone in speculation? SkullGirls had a lot of their potential new characters showcased before making it into the game. And I remember ARMS giving us little snippets and clues to help us drive the speculation, like staticky videos of Lola Pop or mystery posts showing a weird shot of a new stage. I used to love Smash speculation when we were going in completely blind, but it's been so effing long since Nintendo has told us anything and this pass is clearly being dragged out... I think them changing up how they reveal the characters might be a pretty smart PR decision and help guys like you and me from going crazy

 

[AceAttorney9000]

I know Nintendo lives and dies on its hype cycle, but I would love if they announced clearer details on what we're getting for the rest of the pass. Vague silhouettes of the fighters, sneaky screenshots of the stages, maybe a suggestion or a sound clip that points to what music we would be getting... Other fighting games have done it with some success. I'm pretty sure Mortal Kombat showed off blurry silhouettes of everybody, and Street Fighter 5 at least announced a few of the fighters directly and then implied what we would be getting for the last few. I'm not an expert from the FGC, but haven't fighting games also and giving us hints to hone in speculation? I remember ARMS even giving us little snippets and clues to help us drive the speculation. I used to love Smash speculation when we were going in completely blind, but it's been so effing long since Nintendo has told us anything and this pass is clearly being dragged out... I think them changing up how they reveal the characters might be a pretty smart PR decision.

Street Fighter V has already shown two perfectly good methods of revealing characters.

For its third season, they initially only revealed Sakura, then they put out a gorgeous-looking trailer for the Arcade Edition release that ended up revealing Sagat, Blanka, and the rest of the Season 3 characters.

For its fifth and most recent season, they revealed four of the planned DLC characters, albeit still leaving the fifth and last one blank. They also detailed what contents each of the characters (the unrevealed one included) would come with, as well as what general time of year to expect them to drop.

It would be nice if Smash Ultimate did something similar and revealed more than just one or two characters at a time.

 

[MattX20]

While we may wait a while longer for FP7, there is another Bandai Namco game getting at least one new fighter reveal today: Dragon Ball FighterZ. It's being streamed at 11 PDT/1 CST today

 

[SpectreJordan]

Hear me out. Geno is last because they are remaking SMRPG and it's releasing late next year?

I don’t think Geno being the last character is completely unreasonable tbh. He’s a big pick for the Smash community but he’s not going to track too much attention outside of that. So you’d be ending things on a great note for the Smash fanbase, while you’d have other characters that are a bit more marketable to the masses before Geno.

what about a theoretical Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition? I feel it's all but guaranteed after TMS Encore and Pikmin 3 Deluxe

and with it, Elma as the Shill Pick

Honestly, my real prediction is for Xenoblade in general. I just keep saying Rex since XC2 is a bit more relevant, but Fiora or Elma could work too.

People often bring up how my prediction list is stuffed full of fan favorites and, like I said last November, that's pretty much been how it's been with characters heard in insider circles since 2018:

Geno (♥♪!?): Return of the Starsend Savior

Imagine a geno reveal in the style of k rool, except it's plant wearing the mii costume. Wouldn't it make more sense for the Mii Gunner or Megaman to be Geno's fakeout?

smashboards.com

A vast majority of the characters heard have basically fallen into two categories:

-fan favorites that have been requested since at least Brawl

-characters from new companies that would be wildly unexpected by the general public

As time has gone on, the first category has gotten notably stronger while the second has gotten notably weaker. This is a big reason why I don't seriously entertain characters like Sol and Ryu anymore and now think they could be Mii costumes at best. Pretty much since last September the overarching goal of Season 2 has seemed pretty apparent: go big and bold because Smash is probably going to have a notable hiatus once Season 2 is done.

I really hope you’re right. Ending this amazing game on a high note would be a dream come true.

Street Fighter V has already shown two perfectly good methods of revealing characters.

For its third season, they initially only revealed Sakura, then they put out a gorgeous-looking trailer for the Arcade Edition release that ended up revealing Sagat, Blanka, and the rest of the Season 3 characters.

For its fifth and most recent season, they revealed four of the planned DLC characters, albeit still leaving the fifth and last one blank. They also detailed what contents each of the characters (the unrevealed one included) would come with, as well as what general time of year to expect them to drop.

It would be nice if Smash Ultimate did something similar and revealed more than just one or two characters at a time.

My idea is that they could do something that’s a mix between Brawl’s debut trailer & the modern trailers. You’d reveal several characters at once like Brawl’s but it’d have the better theatrics & surprise of the modern trailers.

Maybe it could have the playable cast so far getting attacked by Galeem’s forces. Then: Geno Lights the Way!, then they show him off & then:
Crash Spins Into Battle!
Dante Gets The Party Started!
I have no idea what to say for Lloyd or Rex lmao
Master Chief Finishes The Fight!

Each reveal followed by the character doing some cool stuff.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

I don’t think Geno being the last character is completely unreasonable tbh. He’s a big pick for the Smash community but he’s not going to track too much attention outside of that. So you’d be ending things on a great note for the Smash fanbase, while you’d have other characters that are a bit more marketable to the masses before Geno.



Honestly, my real prediction is for Xenoblade in general. I just keep saying Rex since XC2 is a bit more relevant, but Fiona or Elma could work too.



I really hope you’re right. Ending this amazing game on a high note would be a dream come true.



My idea is that they could do something that’s a mix between Brawl’s debut trailer & the modern trailers. You’d reveal several characters at once like Brawl’s but it’d have the better theatrics & surprise of the modern trailers.

Maybe it could have the playable cast so far getting attacked by Galeem’s forces. Then: Geno Lights the Way!, then they show him off & then:
Crash Spins Into Battle!
Dante Gets The Party Started!
I have no idea what to say for Lloyd or Rex lmao
Master Chief Finishes The Fight!

Each reveal followed by the character doing some cool stuff.

uh... it’s Fiora not Fiona lmao

 

[Phoenix Douchebag]

I swear I'm the only one on the planet who was excited as possible to see Wolf get in. I don't understand how every other series seems to need their villains in to make everyone happy, but yet when they did it for Starfox, people just let out one collective -

sigh........."I guess"

Most people love Wolf, but the thing is, back in the Brawl, people were FAR more critical of Clones in general. People wanted them OUT at any rate, and people didn't had a good understanding of what Clone meant. ("OMG THIS CHARACTER HAS THE SAME MOVE AS THIS OTHER ONE!CLONE! NE,FMANAM,WFJKHKSJLFHASKJFHLAKSJFHKASDJLFHASDJKLFHJ REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE111111111!!1111)

It didn't matter that Wolf had less similarities to Fox in Brawl than Jigglypuff did with Kirby in 64, because Wolf had similar specials and Final Smash to Fox, the ignorant masses who can't do basic research labeled it with the fabled C word (no, not THAT C word) nevermind Wolf having a completely different playstyle and unique Smash Attacs, Aerials, Grabs, etc. If Wolf had his own unique special moves instead of begin variations of Fox and Falco's moves (even if they are different in function), people woulnd't have complained about him beign a clone.

People tend to forget that clones before Ultimate were really controversial and disliked among really vocal groups. Not to mention in the Brawl days, people that proclaimed "WE NEED MOAR FEMEL REPS" tended to be VERY vocal and aggressive than they are now, and Wolf had to fight against Krystal, who was still relevant and had the "MUH UNIQUE STAFF" arguements, not ot mention a leak about Krystal's voice actor that ended up beign true...............but not in the way Krystal fans expected.

ChronoBound knows more about this, since he was during the Brawl days and did a post explaining the details of the great Wolf VS Krys war of the Pre-Brawl days.

While we may wait a while longer for FP7, there is another Bandai Namco game getting at least one new fighter reveal today: Dragon Ball FighterZ. It's being streamed at 11 PDT/1 CST today

If it's not ****ing Master Roshi or Mr Satan but instead another variation of Goku/Vegeta:

 

[SpectreJordan]

uh... it’s Fiora not Fiona lmao

That was autocorrect, sorry lol

 

[ForsakenM]

While we may wait a while longer for FP7, there is another Bandai Namco game getting at least one new fighter reveal today: Dragon Ball FighterZ. It's being streamed at 11 PDT/1 CST today

Where in the hell did you hear about this?!

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!

 

[Let Geno Smash]

I just find this amazing draws about all the Mario RPG story. Obviously includes SMRPG: https://twitter.com/wata_lemon03/status/1294983097570619400?s=20

 

[MattX20]

Where in the hell did you hear about this?!

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!

If you must know, then here https://twitter.com/DbsHype/status/1293605259156180993

 

[Droodle]

I don't think people should go in expecting 5 BIG NAMES/fan favorites as the rest of this Fighters Pass DLC, because there's no real evidence to pointing such a thing. They LITERALLY started this pass off with Min-Min, who had a decent enough reception but wasn't really a fan favorite until ARMS already got confirmed into Smash.

Besides on top of that there is a ton of difference in popularity's of certain series/characters in the West and Japan. Characters like Master Chief, Crash Bandicoot, Doomguy dominate in the West; but not so much in Japan. Meanwhile characters like Reimu, Arle, all come from relatively successful series (currently) in Japan but aren't super big in the West. There aren't that many characters that come from series that are both popular here and in japan AND have a good amount of requests.

In the end, expect 2-3 BIG characters (series/fan requests), and 1-2 Left Field characters.

 

[TheCJBrine]

hey Fatmanonice could this be related to what you’ve said about Zelda?

There was a problem fetching the tweet

GameXplain covered it too.

 

[Awkwah]

I honestly think we are going to receive some sort of PC representative in this pass. WoW, LoL, something from Valve are all larger contenders in my eyes. I know LoL and WoW have VERY large fanbases that probably don't have a lot of cross over to Smash. Would be a good group to grab as I guarantee they would be interested if they got sort of representative in the game.

Compared to Geno, those characters feel like the polar opposite. Small fanbase within Smash, but huge in the gaming world. While Geno is the opposite of that. I could be over estimating Geno in Smash fanbase as I never looked at numbers.

 

[Fatmanonice]

Twitter

While the 28th is still a pastability for the General Direct, someone here explains how that supposed leak yesterday was fake.

 

[StarLight42]

hey Fatmanonice could this be related to what you’ve said about Zelda?

There was a problem fetching the tweet

GameXplain covered it too.

i would’ve said this is bull**** but the fact that GameXplain covered it makes me raise an eyebrow. They don’t cover fake video game rumors at all these days.

 

[Let Geno Smash]

Here is a point, it seems that the Skyward Sword placeholder was added by Nintendo themselves: https://twitter.com/shadowedgy/status/1295027753780117504?s=20

 

[pinshadow]

hey Fatmanonice could this be related to what you’ve said about Zelda?

There was a problem fetching the tweet

GameXplain covered it too.

I was going to send him a DM about it but screw it, the page seems real with a link to the Amazon-UK page of Nintendo, is that something only official licensed products could do? Here's what he said about it back in May.

Sounds like it's either Ocarina of Time or it's a collection of Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword. Honestly makes sense since Zelda's 35th anniversary is next year and it's borderline effortless to sell games on Switch.

It should be noted that this was 3 months ago, and over the last few weeks evidence of Nintendo doing a similar thing for Zelda as they were apparently planning for Mario throughout 2021 has gone up a lot.

• There was a problem fetching the tweet

First point is that Kelios awknowledges some new trademark filing for Ocarina of Time a few weeks back, which is a little weird, that could be for any kind of merchandise, why would that matter.

• There was a problem fetching the tweet

Nintendo registers a HUGE trademark for The Legend of Zelda in July that seems designed to cover every kind of merch under the sun, exactly what they did with Mario last year, showing they likely plan to make the 35th a big deal for Zelda as well (which is consistent given these two are pretty much the only ones NIntendo actually cares about for anniversaries.)

• https://www.twitch.tv/videos/709559867 Around 45:30

Jeff Grubb seems confident Nintendo is going to try and make Zelda a big deal next year with the Anniversary and building up to BOTW2 by rereleasing the older games on Switch, but expects individual releases over a huge collection like Mario. It seems to all be personal speculation but the fact he's confident in it and now Skyward Sword supposedly getting listed still lends to it.

 

[Fatmanonice]

Something, something, Wario telling people to look at something and saying it's incredible, something, something...

 

[ForsakenM]

I honestly think we are going to receive some sort of PC representative in this pass. WoW, LoL, something from Valve are all larger contenders in my eyes. I know LoL and WoW have VERY large fanbases that probably don't have a lot of cross over to Smash. Would be a good group to grab as I guarantee they would be interested if they got sort of representative in the game.

Compared to Geno, those characters feel like the polar opposite. Small fanbase within Smash, but huge in the gaming world. While Geno is the opposite of that. I could be over estimating Geno in Smash fanbase as I never looked at numbers.

Anyone who talks about Smash speculation semi-regularly knows about Geno. You aren't overestimating anything my friend, Geno is just that big a deal for this fandom.

That said, I have to heavily disagree with this 'PC Rep' idea because....well, PCs don't have a rep. That's kinda the idea, that you can play just about anything on a PC. You can narrow that down to a Valve Rep or an Epic Games Rep, but even then it's not very likely.

There are very few characters that were put into Ultimate that had absolutely no demand, if any. Very low demand doesn't have many as well. As much as anyone might argue, the only characters that didn't have a decent amount of request or demand are , , and .

is to Ultimate as was to Smash 4: Left field pick that no one really asked for or wanted but learned to love them anyway.

is to Ultimate as was to Smash 4: People generally had enough of Fire Emblem and anime-esq sword wielders, but we got more AND had to pay for them.

is unique in this situation because it's less about her and more about her franchise. Up until the announcement in March, the demand for an ARMS rep in Ultimate was about 5% of the general community for requests, and I feel like that is being generous. The game was dead for a while and most folks had moved on if they even played it at all as a lot of people found it to be too 'Nintendo' of a game to play consistently. However, once it was confirmed we were getting an ARMS rep, she was essentially the #1 request outside of people wanting Spring Man just to shatter multiple fan rules at once.

People may argue that or weren't heavily requested but they would be wrong. Isabelle is the most popular (or at least was, idk about still, I don't touch AC) character in Animal Crossing and Villager getting in Smash 4 would obviously bring chatter for Isabelle. Incineroar was much more popular in the West than people would like you to believe as Decidueye spiked and then kinda dribbled down in popularity while Incineroar either stayed in place or increased, and his overseas appeal was massive. Also, Pokemon have never really been about requests anyway, more about getting a new one each iteration of Smash...which is also why thinking a Gen 8 mon is in FP2 is stupid as hell.

Pokemon Generations have been skipped in Smash previously and they have only ever been in the base game. I suppose this COULD change with DLC, but considering that Sakurai was talking about pleasing fans with the DLC and how a new gen Pokemon is what everyone EXPECTS and not what they WANT I think a single shill pick in the pass is enough for now.

 

[Let Geno Smash]

Something, something, Wario telling people to look at something and saying it's incredible, something, something...

View attachment 282449

All these years in which the people call you a fraud has been fixed since August 2019. You were the really 1st person from who I heard a Zelda 35th Collection and now seems like the most likely outcome

 

[Vector Victor]

Twitter

While the 28th is still a pastability for the General Direct, someone here explains how that supposed leak yesterday was fake.

It was pretty obvious it was fake for the clearest of reasons: it claimed that Nintendo would announce games.

 

[I_DON'T_KNOW_YOU!]

There's two ways to launch an application on Steam: there's launching it from your Steam library, and then there's launching it directly with the executable. Launching it from your Steam library is exactly how it sounds, you go into your Steam library and hit the green play button to launch the game. Launching the executable requires you go to Program Files x86 ==> steam ==> steamapps ==> common, and from there you'll find the BFBBR folder with the executable inside. All you gotta do from that point is double click to launch it.

Switch, bro. Not Steam.

 

[Enigma735]

Characters like Master Chief, Crash Bandicoot, Doomguy dominate in the West; but not so much in Japan.

As a Crash supporter, I have to disagree with this. Just look at those Japanese Crash commercials. Japan LOVED the Bandicoot.

But yeah I agree with your mentality though. I'm honestly only expecting one more Western character at most. I'd be surprised if we would be in for even more then that.

 

[Fatmanonice]

All these years in which the people call you a fraud has been fixed since August 2019. You were the really 1st person from who I heard a Zelda 35th Collection and now seems like the most likely outcome

It also helps that it's yet another evergreen rumor that seems to finally be coming true.

Producer Aonuma Comments Spark Rumors of ‘Skyward Sword’ Switch Release

The 'Zelda' series producer reportedly mentioned a Switch port during a recent concert in Japan.

www.google.com

Yet another 2018 rumor coming true in 2020?!? Golly, it's an epidemic!

Also, the Polish Amiibo leak in early May already added a ton of backing to this so I kind of figured that this rumor's kill switch was likely to be September anyways:

Geno (♥♪!?): Return of the Starsend Savior

It makes no sense that Nintendo would waste time, money, and assets dealing with Square over an updated costume when they could just port over the old one getting the same amount of money. A Geno costume but with a face is not gonna make that much of a difference since the fans know he got...

smashboards.com

Boy, sure would be a shame if a certain duo of Mario characters heard in insider circles since 2018 came true too...

 

[J. Bond]

i would’ve said this is bull**** but the fact that GameXplain covered it makes me raise an eyebrow. They don’t cover fake video game rumors at all these days.

They covered the F-Zero twitter.

 

[Vector Victor]

They covered the F-Zero twitter.

And they covered the 'rumor' of an Nintendo big name being at Microsoft's E3 last year. They went even further by deleting that video afterwards.

 

[a random user]

If it's not ****ing Master Roshi or Mr Satan but instead another variation of Goku/Vegeta:

why not both? (laughs in gogeta)

 

[AdamBel731]

Well if GameXplain is doing a discussion on this rumor so quickly, this seems like a done deal to come true. I would say some Zelda re-releases for its anniversary are quite likely.

On the topic of Geno, I think if we a Mario-specific Direct announced Geno and/or Waluigi could easily be announced for Smash.

 

[Fatmanonice]

Like I said in this post, the thing that made me pay attention to my friend's Zelda rumor from April is because the Polish Amiibo leak supported it so heavily:

Geno (♥♪!?): Return of the Starsend Savior

It makes no sense that Nintendo would waste time, money, and assets dealing with Square over an updated costume when they could just port over the old one getting the same amount of money. A Geno costume but with a face is not gonna make that much of a difference since the fans know he got...

smashboards.com

Skyward Sword kind of adds a new dimension to Amiibo theory because the Smash Zelda rereleases do seem to be tied to upcoming Zelda announcements. The Smash Mario Amiibo rereleases obviously have to do with the 35th anniversary but, like I HMMMM'd about most of the summer, this puts a beeg spotlight on why the hell they're planning on rereleasing almost every single Splatoon Amiibo soon too. Also, just to repeat the Smash Amiibo that haven't been rereleased yet:

Smash 4 Amiibo Rereleasing in September according to the Polish Amiibo leak:

-Luigi
Ryu

Ultimate Smash Amiibo Rereleasing in September according to the Polish Amiibo leak:

-Young Link

Smash 4 Amiibo that haven't been rereleased yet:

-Peach
-Yoshi
-DK
-Diddy
-Falco
-Kirby
-Ness
-Lucas
-Corrin
-Game and Watch
-Pit
-Dark Pit
-Palutena
-ROB
-Duck Hunt
-Miis

Ultimate Smash Amiibo that haven't been rereleased yet:

-Daisy
-Ken
-Ice Climbers
-Dark Samus
-Ridley
-Simon
-Richter
-Pokemon Trainer
-Squirtle
-Ivysaur
-Pichu
-Inceniroar
-Snake
-Wolf

Might be worth keeping an eye on this.

 

[SpectreJordan]

As a Crash supporter, I have to disagree with this. Just look at those Japanese Crash commercials. Japan LOVED the Bandicoot.

But yeah I agree with your mentality though. I'm honestly only expecting one more Western character at most. I'd be surprised if we would be in for even more then that.

I think it’s possible that we could get two more Western characters. Western representation in Smash has increased greatly since Banjo. Undertale, Assassin’s Creed, Rabbids, Cuphead, Warframe & Fallout all in the past year. That’s a LOT especially compared to how few we had before. It could indicate that more western characters are coming. Though 2 is probably the maximum we’ll get.

 

[MattX20]

If it's not ****ing Master Roshi or Mr Satan but instead another variation of Goku/Vegeta:

It's Roshi, he's out next month

 

[ForsakenM]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

ROSHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII~!

 

[PestilenceSSB]

I just wanted to pop by for a quick question: are we still expecting an Indie direct tomorrow? If so, where did the rumours come from in the first place?