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Nintendo also uses good discernment. If they were going to milk their franchises I'd expect to see more BotW, MK8 and Odyssey DLCs. As much as I'd like to see all 30 of the unused slots in the Smash data used up, Nintendo usually stops at a certain point.
Though the 30 slots as noted also apply to usage of unique alternate costumes(gender alts, ones like the Koopalings or even Builder Mario apply), so a lot would still be possible to use.
That's never going to happen no matter how many "leakers" come and go. It will always be a part of Smash speculation because it's a fundamental part of discussing pre-release speculation at this point and has been for years. I think most of us have been around long enough to notice that in the extended absence of official information, we will discuss basically anything, not matter how insignificant or irrational. And E3 isn't the end of anything but speculation for the next character (Characters ?). Any character that isn't a Square Enix character specifically just puts all of the Square-Enix characters back into the same holding pattern, just without the Brave justifications (Which has always been the weakest link to... well anything actually relevant). The "concerns" only get put to bed when DLC is absolutely finished.
I mean, Smash will live on as an evergreen regardless of how much DLC they produce for the game. It's just that big of a title and I think we can't really discount that fact. That's the real money Nintendo wants, new Switches and new copies of Smash sold throughout the console's life span like Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 2, and Super Mario Odyssey. The DLC is just extra profit on top of that, and I have my doubts about Nintendo's willingness to move on from Sakurai in the same DLC cycle. For as much as has been said of Japanese respect for an individual's work, I sincerely doubt they would produce anything without him and he's likely the biggest limiting factor in regards to future DLC. He's the Smash guy, and you're not just going to replace him over night on the title he personally developed unless he approves and appoints some sort of official successor. Again, by the end of the Fighter's Pass, he will have been working exclusively on Smash Bros for 8 straight years. And for all intensive purposes, Ultimate already serves as the culmination of all of that work. He has a product to be plenty proud of to leave behind and sell well for Nintendo while he takes an extended break from the franchise or focuses on other projects.
The future lifespan of smash bros is kind of a unique case unto itself. There's only so much you can do to improve the graphics and mechanics with such a franchise without turning it into something significantly different. That said, I seriously doubt Nintendo will be able to, or even want to, sell another iteration of the game on the switch. Why? Think of what they could even use for a selling point. More characters? Sakurai himself admitted the difficulty of such a full roster. We'd be lucky if the next game were able to match the sheer quantity of characters assuming we don't lose a big part of the roster in exchange for a bunch of new ones. And even if by some miracle we got EVERY SINGLE EXISTING CHARACTER plus a bunch of new ones, why couldn't they have just made the new ones DLC? The only way to make the new game stand apart would be the addition of some seriously awesome modes or new mechanics, but judging by ultimate, I seriously doubt we can have our cake and eat it too with a roster that huge AND have room for all those extras. The software/hardware has limits, not to mention the health of the devs lol.
Another Smash for Switch isn't impossible, especially if it has as long a lifespan as Nintendo wants it to. All characters could theoretically return if the team was given more than 3 ****ing years to develop the game. Not that I think that should happen, but it's not something that can't happen.
True, but how long do you think the Switch's lifespan will last? Say 10 years? Smash Ult DLC already has them going into what? Year 3 or 4 of the switch's life? If they got started on the next one in about 2 or 3 years they could have something truly amazing in time for the next generation.
You're saying it like we don't already have a truly amazing game in our hands.
I don't doubt that Nintendo will just get someone else to direct future Smash titles if Sakurai calls it quits, but within the same game? That, I really don't see happening. If Sakurai decides the Fighter Pass is enough as far as DLC, I don't think Nintendo can or will really do much about that.
THIS. The simplest, easiest, most bang-for-their-buck approach would be to just support ultimate with as much DLC as possible. It would be far less impact on the devs than making a whole new game and the profits would speak for themselves. For those of you that argue that Sakurai is the life-blood of the game, even more reason for them to nurture what they already have rather than begin work on something totally new. I theorize that Nintendo will make Ultimate THE smash game for as long as humanly possible, maybe even choosing to port it to future consoles with yet more DLC. Doing so would also unify the competitive scene which is only now beginning to step away from Melee and into the open arms of Ultimate. Either way, we'll just have to wait and see to know for sure.
To be clear, I certainly don't think Sakurai's exit from Smash will mean the end of Smash. I just completely doubt that they would replace him during the DLC cycle of the game he developed because he wields so much power and devoted so much passion to the project. Unless the new head of NOJ is a real piece of **** who will pull some Konami and Kojima The Phantom Pain era bull****, when Sakurai says he's done, he's done and so is Smash Ultimate.
Japanese work culture is stringent and Sakurai applies himself to that, but he has mentioned taking short breaks before and he has tended to work on other projects in between big Smash releases. Ultimate is the first time since 64 and Melee that he has gone straight into another Smash game after completing the last one. It's difficult to read where he is in this situation, hence my comments above, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if he decides to finish his work on Smash Ultimate with the end of the Fighter's Pass and move on to other projects. He's a talented developer with lots of unique ideas, and he is likely to basically have a blank check when it comes to developing most of the ideas for Nintendo.
Really? That's interesting to hear you say that. May I ask for the source of this information? Thanks again! You're a huge help in learning about information for Ultimate and its fanbase in the East.
From his book. It said the DLC wasn't even a thing by the time his vol.546 of Famitsu column came out and was planned without the dev team knowing about it. So the DLC planning started after January 11th 2018.Really? That's interesting to hear you say that. May I ask for the source of this information? Thanks again! You're a huge help in learning about information for Ultimate and its fanbase in the East.
Care to break that down in more detail than just saying it's from his book? I know you're able to read Japanese from other posts, so you're the idea person to analyze something like that for us. I just find it a little bit hard to believe that Sakurai had no impact when his love for Persona 5 has been cited specifically as something that got Joker into Smash in the first place from an Atlus employee.
It could also mean that Sakurai knew, but everyone else in the dev team didn't. That would make sense to me.
I understood 'the dev team' as 'everyone but Sakurai'. As in, he made the project plan and only told his team when it was finalized.
It's sad it got cancelled, but the user was very open and not trying to sneak behind Nintendo or Square-Enix's backs, so that's something really nice to see.
I like a low level attempt.
Whoops, misread that then. That would make sense given they weren't in production at the time of choosing the DLC and I suspect Sakurai functions with a similar process when developing the initial product plans for Smash games.
This actually interests me a lot. It indicates that not only does Nintendo still give enough of a **** about a game that hasn't had anything substantial done with it in decades (and, perhaps more tellingly, one they technically don't own) to go out of their way and immediately squash a fan project based off it, but they also seem to be at least somewhat interested in a followup to SMRPG themselves judging by them asking OP about their thoughts on an official SMRPG sequel. It especially interests me that the Nintendo rep's sentiment seems to imply that if there were ever noticeable demand for SMRPG2 (coughOperationStarfallcough), they'd probably make it happen. The post's not even that old, either; only about a year and a half by this point. Hmm...
You heard it from Geno himself folks
It would probably cost in the hundreds of dollars at least. But nobody would sell an individual IP. Square Enix sells the rights to SMRPG, they're creating a competitor who can make an RPG remake/sequel/port that will compete with their own games, and they're selling themselves out of the chance of doing so themselves if they find it profitable down the line.
Didn't these already get translated? I think I saw some part of the book translated somewhere.
So basically, Nintendo's making some risks with how they're handling Smash's DLC, Sakurai isn't big on a season pass (I agree, I preferred Sm4sh's individual approach), and Nintendo planned, at the very least, the concept and bare bones ideas behind the fighter's pass without Sakurai's go-ahead.
Actually Mario is their flagship franchise and probably always will be.
If any fanbase is big enough to do it, it's us.
I like where your head's at. How I wish their were more rich gamers out there to do stuff like this.
Honestly, I thought we knew everything from PushDustIn (SourceGaming) and his translations of everything, but... I guess some stuff must have slipped through the cracks? (thinking emoji)
Still hoping for DLC...