Official Newcomer/DLC Speculation Discussion

[Koopaul]

Crown prince of Saudi Arabia's foundation to buy 51% stake in SNK

The Mohammad bin Salman Charity Foundation is set to take a controlling stake in Japanese games firm SNK.The not-for-pr…

www.gamesindustry.biz

Uhhh yeah I’d rather Tencent buy them than a God damn mass murderer just sayin’

Wait. This is real? I thought it was a meme.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

Wait. This is real? I thought it was a meme.

Apparently not

 

[SKX31]

Crown prince of Saudi Arabia's foundation to buy 51% stake in SNK

The Mohammad bin Salman Charity Foundation is set to take a controlling stake in Japanese games firm SNK.The not-for-pr…

www.gamesindustry.biz

Uhhh yeah I’d rather Tencent buy them than a God damn mass murderer just sayin’

Does this mean they will censor Mai?

Wait. This is real? I thought it was a meme.

Real.

And uh oh. My last post on this would age very poorly if SNK's Kosdaq (Korean) shares are actually SNK proper. I did presume that their Beijing office was where the main listing was, but I could obviously be wrong there. Still, there are parts of the last post I want to highlight - this deal was underground but not invisible if one knew where to look. SNK and MBS have been working together since 2017.

And no, they are not likely censor Mai in most regions. Reasons being that

A: Najd - which is a guest character in KoF created by MBS' Manga Productions mind - appeared in the same promo art as Blue Mary, and Blue Mary was in her classic baring-her-midriff outfit.

B: The involvements from oil sheiks in football / soccer clubs like Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain have not meant censorship in most of the world's broadcasts. Although it's brought its whole host of issues. It's sadly kinda unavoidable when many big owners of sports teams are in the "$cr£w the rules, I have Mon€¥" category. The oil sheiks are comparable to the Russian oil juggernaut Gazprom sponsoring bunch of high profile football stuff... because wouldn't you know it, both of them have direct ties to their respective governments.

Most - to go in depth in what I stated last post: Any release of SNK games in the Saudi Arabia? They'll likely censor her in those releases, due to the fact that any content is heavily regulated and regimented; to the point video games are one of the few ways ordinary citizens can get entertainment officiallly.

Officially mind. There's a major underground channel where stuff like games are imported, and it has created some rather strange-on-the-surface scenes:

“You could find girls who played video games, just for fun or on their mobile phone, but I had no idea how many girls were into hardcore gaming,” Felwa said. While mobile games like Angry Birds and Candy Crush were popular — the Kingdom boasts a 90% cell phone penetration rate — Felwa was curious to see how many girls had grown up like her playing Tomb Raider, Tekken, and League of Legends.

When the hall flooded with nearly 3,000 women, some as young as 13 and others in their 50s, it was a shock. “I definitely did not expect moms to come,” Felwa said. Back then, it was mandatory for women to wear the traditional black abaya, and often a headscarf, while in public. It was only when the women walked through the doors into the all-female space that their abayas slipped off to reveal an array of cosplay costumes.

Inside the hallway, girls who were expected to behave discreetly at all times rushed around trying to play as many PlayStation- and Nintendo-sponsored games as they could. On one side of the hall, first-time cosplayers shared a rare opportunity to express their fandom. On the other, 150 people stood in a rowdy line waiting their turn in a Call of Duty tournament.

Mind you, this is in a country where the idea of "how people should behave" is institutionalized and enforced through many, many, many different ways as the article hinted at.

Any release of SNK games in the neighboring UAE (Dubai, the city with the newfangled towers)? Not nearly as likely: UAE's much more liberal with what can be officially released (which isn't super-liberal, mind, but I'm comparing these two countries), partly because the UAE's government hard-pivoted to being a practical city-state and made a concious effort to attract business. Most PlayStations, Xboxes and Switches who get to the Middle East first arrive to Dubai, and are then shipped throughout the region (officially and unofficially). As such, if Mai is to be censored in an UAE release it's likely to be the lighter take like the one SNK used for Honor of Kings.

Not really. Many countries in Europe classify loot boxes as gambling, and many more are considering it. That's why it hasn't released there, and those circumstances aren't likely to change in Dragalia Lost's favor.

The most important thing with gambling in Europe is that:

In most EU countries at least (IIRC): In order to gamble one has to be 18+. Whether one gambles via any state-sponsored gambling organization or a private company. Most private company gambling ads in the EU are also strictly targeted to the 18+ male crowd, like gambling ads targeted towards the football-watching crowd. The private gambling corps run the gamut from normal to shadier stuff, as I presume things are in America as well.

Nintendo would probably never want to advertise Dragalia like that I'd imagine. Thusly, any EU release of Dragalia would have to rework it to be a more standard console-ish experience I'd imagine.

 

[ShrimpScampi]

Well if we want to talk about something new, how about this.

Do you think there has ever been a third party company who has paid Nintendo to be included in Smash? Or maybe they gave their content away for practically free?

When I say this, I don't just mean characters, I mean things like spirits and trophies as well.

Considering how intensely Suda51 pushed for Travis in Smash, I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo didn't have to pay much for the Mii costume. I'm not sure if Marvelous would be on the same page, but at the very least Suda and Grasshopper Manufacture were on a mission to get Travis in Smash.

 

[Cutie Gwen]

View attachment 292955



In all seriousness though even if they won't acknowledge that the option exists they won't take it down since it allows them to bypass European gambling laws for free. Either way I don't think Dragalia Lost not having an official release in the European play store will affect it's chances for Smash.

I feel like they wouldn't want to be accused of indirectly promoting a bypass which could get them in legal trouble either way

Well if we want to talk about something new, how about this.

Do you think there has ever been a third party company who has paid Nintendo to be included in Smash? Or maybe they gave their content away for practically free?

When I say this, I don't just mean characters, I mean things like spirits and trophies as well.

We know Ubisoft just outright sent a Rayman model for use, meaning dev costs would have been saved, would you say that counts?

 

[GoodGrief741]

Well if we want to talk about something new, how about this.

Do you think there has ever been a third party company who has paid Nintendo to be included in Smash? Or maybe they gave their content away for practically free?

When I say this, I don't just mean characters, I mean things like spirits and trophies as well.

Ubisoft probably didn't charge a dime for all of the Rayman content. I imagine that the base game indies (Shantae and Shovel Knight) also did it for free or for relatively cheap.

Other than that, maybe some Spirit Events? Given that they're basically promotional tools, I could see the deals for them happening with no money exchanged.

 

[7NATOR]

Well if we want to talk about something new, how about this.

Do you think there has ever been a third party company who has paid Nintendo to be included in Smash? Or maybe they gave their content away for practically free?

When I say this, I don't just mean characters, I mean things like spirits and trophies as well.

I don't think they had to pay Nintendo directly, but I Think Wayforward sent Nintendo some artwork for Spirits for free.

I don't think Anyone has paid Nintendo directly for content in Smash. I think at best they do it for free. It could be an interesting idea to perhaps Pay Nintendo and Sora LTD. (and I guess Namco too) for a Smash Dev Kit, so you can make your own Assets for Smash that the Smash team can use for the game

 

[PLATINUM7]

The Saudi Arabian company/Prince is going to acquire and additional 17% giving them 51% according to more recent reports.

 

[NonSpecificGuy]

The Saudi Arabian company/Prince is going to acquire and additional 17% giving them 51% according to more recent reports.

This is the worst timeline.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

****
What’s this gonna mean for SNK content in future smash games...?

 

[Swamp Sensei]

What are the downsides to the Saudi prince owning most of SNK?

 

[GoodGrief741]

What are the downsides to the Saudi prince owning most of SNK?

None that's immediately foreseeable. Like SKX31 said, tons of sheiks buy Western companies and carry on with business as usual. Now, children of autocrats having "**** you" money and buying corporations on a whim only to terribly mismanage them isn't an uncommon story either. But MBS is, to put it kindly, shrewder and more ambitious than the usual rich kid.

On a practical level, the one thing I can potentially foresee are boycotts of SNK given its new ownership. To be fair, its previous owner was a Chinese company, so by default they were shady as well, but maybe Saudi Arabia is more susceptible to backlash because they aren't as big a part of the market as China.

 

[7NATOR]

Would SNK get more funding for their games though?

 

[pupNapoleon]

This post goes out to all of you who are only reunited with family through a very brief reprieve in all this madness. I know it's hard. Stay strong. I have missed mine since 2019 and only get a couple days.

 

[GoodGrief741]

Would SNK get more funding for their games though?

Maybe? Certainly having the Crown Prince of a nation with a GDP of $786billion as your main backer grants you unequaled financial stability. But we don't know yet what he intends to do with SNK, and how important it is for him. Maybe they're looking to pump some cash into the company to make it grow, maybe they're content with letting it operate as it was, maybe they want to turn it into a propaganda machine. It's too early to tell honestly.

I personally doubt that we're going to stop seeing characters like Mai and Blue Mary though, it doesn't make a lot of sense to buy a small company whose biggest assets are its IP to come in and not use them.

 

[NonSpecificGuy]

****
What’s this gonna mean for SNK content in future smash games...?

I’m less concerned about what it means for smash as I am what it means for SNK. Saudi Arabia’s agenda is you do it or you die. And they’re infamously anti-human-rights. So gay characters? Nope. Strong women? Nuh-uh. It’s gonna be a MAJOR step back for SNK if this goes through and all in all the company and the industry is going to suffer because of it. Sucks that after YEARS of the company being basically defunct, they finally get a revival, only for them to likely be set back by this sucky acquisition. It hurts being an SNK fan seeing this.

I just hope someone else buys those shares out from under them...

 

[ahemtoday]

I’m less concerned about what it means for smash as I am what it means for SNK. Saudi Arabia’s agenda is you do it or you die. And they’re infamously anti-human-rights. So gay characters? Nope. Strong women? Nuh-uh. It’s gonna be a MAJOR step back for SNK if this goes through and all in all the company and the industry is going to suffer because of it. Sucks that after YEARS of the company being basically defunct, they finally get a revival, only for them to likely be set back by this sucky acquisition. It hurts being an SNK fan seeing this.

I just hope someone else buys those shares out from under them...

If this guy who bought SNK really had that much of an objection to that sort of thing, why would he have bought the company in the first place? I mean, I have no idea if SNK has any gay characters, but they definitely have a lot of strong women. If I was the kinda jerkface that hated that, I definitely wouldn't go out of my way to buy the company.

Then again, I don't know how someone like that thinks...

 

[Wunderwaft]

I feel like they wouldn't want to be accused of indirectly promoting a bypass which could get them in legal trouble either way

Well, they wouldn't be accused of it if they never mentioned it in the first place. The bypass isn't really that big of a deal since it's kind of an open secret at this point.

I’m less concerned about what it means for smash as I am what it means for SNK. Saudi Arabia’s agenda is you do it or you die. And they’re infamously anti-human-rights. So gay characters? Nope. Strong women? Nuh-uh. It’s gonna be a MAJOR step back for SNK if this goes through and all in all the company and the industry is going to suffer because of it. Sucks that after YEARS of the company being basically defunct, they finally get a revival, only for them to likely be set back by this sucky acquisition. It hurts being an SNK fan seeing this.

I just hope someone else buys those shares out from under them...

I think there's a bit too much fear mongering in this post. Like SKX31 said Najd is a Saudi Arabian designed character that debuted in KoF 14 and she was promoted alongside Blue Mary. While we don't know exactly how this will affect SNK I doubt the company is being bought for the sake of censoring it's characters and restricting SNK's creative designs. SNK isn't exactly a mainstream company, so investing in it definitely happened due to the long legacy of it's characters and IPs, which I'm sure the buyers are aware of their value and how detrimental it would be to change them.

In the end it's a bit too soon to tell what will happen due to this major investment in SNK. Maybe it might affect things, or maybe they'll just let SNK do their own thing. My best guess is that this is for the sake of the prince's 2030 vision which aims to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy and make it less reliant on oil. Which in that case this investment makes sense since Saudi Arabia's game development industry is non-existent. I do hope nothing changes for SNK in how they develop games and this just means SNK will get more funding.

 

[Commander_Alph]

On the other hand, Nintendo might get more in the long run with choosing Dragalia, since unlike Granblue, Dragalia lost is Joint owned by Nintendo.

You know, when I think about it the farthest we got with collaboration character joining in Smash is goes as far as being an assist trophy, remember Yuri Kozukata? Cause recent Fatal Frame game have been co develop by Nintendo and say all you want about the gameplay of Fatal Frame not fitting into Smash but this literally a sign for Dragalia Lost representation going not as far as being a fighter, similarly to something like No More Heroes and Mario + Rabbid though the latter half is not really that convincing. Oh yeah... forget about Bayonetta but she's considered a 3rd party so idk if it affect her given that Nintendo only provide them money and console for their game to be released

It's just that a game that is co develop by Nintendo has its own merits that while it's something hip and cool when really it's nothing special not even special privilege for that matter alone. And also for the more interesting side is that Granblue Fantasy is probably the safest and bigger option for them to choose given they have been pushing the series to a wider console and PC audience and still striving. Regardless I don't have the mindset and just say that Euden is unlikely which the boring answer.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

Well if we want to talk about something new, how about this.

Do you think there has ever been a third party company who has paid Nintendo to be included in Smash? Or maybe they gave their content away for practically free?

When I say this, I don't just mean characters, I mean things like spirits and trophies as well.

Accolade did attempt to pay for Bubsy to get in Smash, but Nintendo just wasn't swayed by the offer of $25 in cash.

 

[7NATOR]

You know, when I think about it the farthest we got with collaboration character joining in Smash is goes as far as being an assist trophy, remember Yuri Kozukata? Cause recent Fatal Frame game have been co develop by Nintendo and say all you want about the gameplay of Fatal Frame not fitting into Smash but this literally a sign for Dragalia Lost representation going not as far as being a fighter, similarly to something like No More Heroes and Mario + Rabbid though the latter half is not really that convincing. Oh yeah... forget about Bayonetta but she's considered a 3rd party so idk if it affect her given that Nintendo only provide them money and console for their game to be released

It's just that a game that is co develop by Nintendo has its own merits that while it's something hip and cool when really it's nothing special not even special privilege for that matter alone. And also for the more interesting side is that Granblue Fantasy is probably the safest and bigger option for them to choose given they have been pushing the series to a wider console and PC audience and still striving. Regardless I don't have the mindset and just say that Euden is unlikely which the boring answer.

I think this was great post

I can see this. I guess at the end of the Day, Dragalia lost is a Weird Situation. It's been around for 2 Years now, but it hasn't touched an actual Nintendo Console yet. It's been successful on Mobile, but it's something to consider

Dragalia Lost kinda reminds me of the Situation of ARMS, though i think ARMS had more in it's favor than Draglia lost. I still think it's weird that it's not present at all in Smash though

 

[Commander_Alph]

I think this was great post

Dragalia Lost kinda reminds me of the Situation of ARMS, though i think ARMS had more in it's favor than Draglia lost. I still think it's weird that it's not present at all in Smash though

I think I'm still weirded out that Dragalia Lost doesn't even have a single representation in Smash and yet a Famicom game gets one like a spirit and music, and something weird like the Ando Kensaku spirit which came from a Wii game in collaboration with Google leads me to speculate that Smash favors console game but still had the audacity to have Pac-Man and Simon's fighter spirit taken from a mobile game ( Pac-Man's artwork from Sonic Runners and Simon's artwork from Grimoire of Souls)

 

[NonSpecificGuy]

Well, they wouldn't be accused of it if they never mentioned it in the first place. The bypass isn't really that big of a deal since it's kind of an open secret at this point.


I think there's a bit too much fear mongering in this post. Like SKX31 said Najd is a Saudi Arabian designed character that debuted in KoF 14 and she was promoted alongside Blue Mary. While we don't know exactly how this will affect SNK I doubt the company is being bought for the sake of censoring it's characters and restricting SNK's creative designs. SNK isn't exactly a mainstream company, so investing in it definitely happened due to the long legacy of it's characters and IPs, which I'm sure the buyers are aware of their value and how detrimental it would be to change them.

In the end it's a bit too soon to tell what will happen due to this major investment in SNK. Maybe it might affect things, or maybe they'll just let SNK do their own thing. My best guess is that this is for the sake of the prince's 2030 vision which aims to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy and make it less reliant on oil. Which in that case this investment makes sense since Saudi Arabia's game development industry is non-existent. I do hope nothing changes for SNK in how they develop games and this just means SNK will get more funding.

I mean, maybe. We can’t really say either way but even if they don’t change anything about SNK I’m not sure I’m really happy with the fact that a part of my childhood is now majority owned by a regime that is misogynistic and violently homophobic so you’ll have to excuse me if my morals get in the way of my business sense.

Edit: I dunno man, even if nothing changes in SNK’s development I’m still not sure I could support SNK in good faith anymore considering some of Saudi Arabia’s tendencies but I guess that’s just me. I’m bummed out about it though.

 

[ahemtoday]

I mean, maybe. We can’t really say either way but even if they don’t change anything about SNK I’m not sure I’m really happy with the fact that a part of my childhood is now majority owned by a regime that is misogynistic and violently homophobic so you’ll have to excuse me if my morals get in the way of my business sense.

Yeah, I get that. It doesn't feel great for me to hear, and I was only very dimly aware of SNK until a couple years ago. I can't imagine how rough it must be for someone who grew up with the games.

 

[KingofPhantoms]

Why does the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia even want shareholding of SNK?

 

[Guynamednelson]

Why does the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia even want shareholding of SNK?

He's a big spender. Big, big, big spender.

 

[TCT~Phantom]

Why does the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia even want shareholding of SNK?

Diversifying the economy of Saudi Arabia. Oil is not going to carry Saudi Arabia's economy forever, especially as the world is trying to shift away from fossil fuels. Buying stake in companies and attempting to diversify their economy makes sense. I mean, MBS (The crown prince) owns some manga companies I heard.

That or he is a dork.

 

[Cosmic77]

The royal family in Saudi Arabia has accumulated so much combined wealth that you could multiply the wealth of the British royal family by fifteen and still not surpass them.

I don't know if he bought those shares for business purposes or for personal reasons. Honestly, it probably doesn't matter much to him either way.

 

[SharkLord]

Diversifying the economy of Saudi Arabia. Oil is not going to carry Saudi Arabia's economy forever, especially as the world is trying to shift away from fossil fuels. Buying stake in companies and attempting to diversify their economy makes sense. I mean, MBS (The crown prince) owns some manga companies I heard.

That or he is a dork.

I've heard he's a fan of One Piece, though I'll have to double-check that. If true, then probably a bit of both.

 

[KingofPhantoms]

Diversifying the economy of Saudi Arabia. Oil is not going to carry Saudi Arabia's economy forever, especially as the world is trying to shift away from fossil fuels. Buying stake in companies and attempting to diversify their economy makes sense. I mean, MBS (The crown prince) owns some manga companies I heard.

That or he is a dork.

I just didn't think video game companies would be on their mind.

But if that thing about him having also already owning manga companies is true, then that makes more sense.

 

[DarthEnderX]

People like Sexy Things in Games because Sexy + Gameplay is a good combination for alot of people.

Well, I don't need it to BE a combination. I can enjoy those things separately just fine.

What are the downsides to the Saudi prince owning most of SNK?

He probably decided it was just cheaper to buy SNK than it was to unlock everything in King of Fighters All Star on his own.

 

[CapitaineCrash]

Well if we want to talk about something new, how about this.

Do you think there has ever been a third party company who has paid Nintendo to be included in Smash? Or maybe they gave their content away for practically free?

When I say this, I don't just mean characters, I mean things like spirits and trophies as well.

While I doubt he paid for it to happen, Toby Fox was the one who approach Sakurai to make Sans a costume (normally Nintendo or Sakurai start the talk with the third party). It was probably relatively cheap to add Sans considering that Toby Fox was the one who wanted him. Who knows, maybe it was even free for Nintendo?

 

[Garteam]

I think whether or not SNK gets censored is going to ultimately come down to one variable:

Middle Eastern states tying themselves to the economic interests of Western states is absolutely nothing new. They've been doing it since basically the end of World War II to better secure their regimes. The United States may normally turn a blind eye if the Saudi Arabian royal family is overthrown in a coup d'etat, but they're gonna reconsider that position if their country's gonna take a financial hit if the new regime doesn't play ball on issues relating to trade.

Traditionally, this has been accomplished through trading large amounts of oil with the West. However, given that we've already passed peak oil a long time ago and the West's desire to slowly ween themselves off oil due to climate change, it's clear that strategy needs to change if the Middle East wants to remain the global economic system's interests. Thus, it's kinda unsurprising that Saudi Arabia is exploring the technology industry to diversify itself. It's worked incredibly well for East Asia, with Japan, South Korea, and (most notably) China all becoming economic powerhouses in the last 50 years thanks to exporting technological brands to the West. It also plays to the primary use of the other resource that Saudi Arabia is rich in, minerals like zinc and manganese.

As to whether or not Mai's gonna get censored? It could go either way, but I personally doubt it. Saudi Arabia's entire rationale for buying SNK goes down the toilet if they can't sell enough games to justify trade deals. Likewise, most people would say the best way to increase sales is to not censor Mai or any other female characters. Sex sells, changing the design of one of your most iconic characters to appeal to domestic sensibilities in a product that's intended for an international audience actively doesn't sell. Then again, the Capcom leaks from a week or two ago mentioned that they're afraid that sexualized female designs in their games are turning away Western customers, but Capcom also thought that watering down Resident Evil and Devil May Cry for a lowest common denominator audience would be the best way to appeal to Western customers, so it's hard to tell if that memo really represents what's going through the heads of Japanese companies or if they're just misreading the Western market by themselves.

In terms of Smash, I don't see things really changing all that much. I don't think Saudi Arabia is going to demand their devs emigrate to the country, so I don't think negotiations are going to get any more difficult. Likewise, while Smash is kinda a risky product for certain brand's images (let's be real, would the modern Pokemon Company really let Joker shoot Pikachu with a pistol if Sakurai didn't tie them down when the series was young?), I think both SNK and Saudi Arabia know that having their stuff in the best selling fighting game of all time is a massive boon. The only area where I could see conflict arising is if Sakurai thinks working with the Saudi royal family crosses some ethical line. Sugiyama was one thing, but opposing LGBT marriages and promoting historical revisionism (while terrible in their own right) are just the tip of the iceberg for some of the things that the Saudi Arabian government has gotten up to. Obviously, I'm not going to list them here, but it's not hard to find them with a quick Google search

TL;DR: Saudi Arabia's doing this because they want to remain economically relevant in a post-oil world and believe investing in tech is a good way to do that. They're most likely not going to censor things because it will harm profits, unless they believe censorship will help profits, then Mai's getting a nice pair of leggings. SNK's most likely going to stay in Smash unless Sakurai feels uncomfortable about working with Saudi Arabia's government for future projects.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

You're talking to someone who was actively stalked and harassed by Banjo fans for the crime of not liking nor wanting Banjo and being vocal about it to a fault. One guy made an alt account to circumvent losing signature privileges because he used it for harassment.

So maybe stay in your lane.

My apologies, I was not aware of this Cutie Gwen I’m sorry you had to deal with that

 

[JamesDNaux]

Or maybe they gave their content away for practically free?

When I say this, I don't just mean characters, I mean things like spirits and trophies as well.

SNK and the 50 car music train, not even Nintendo were cheap enough to give themselves more than a dozen or so tracks for the two characters they own.
Figure that one out.

 

[Mushroomguy12]

This is as far as you'll go!

pic.twitter.com/7u6AqBcdlG

— 桜井 政博 / Masahiro Sakurai (@Sora_Sakurai) November 28, 2020

Looks like Min-Min's looking to collect some Eggs for her Ramen recipe.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

We interrupt your discussion of the prince of Saudi Arabia buying 51% of SNK’s shares to give you the POTD

pic.twitter.com/7u6AqBcdlG

— 桜井 政博 / Masahiro Sakurai (@Sora_Sakurai) November 28, 2020

Omelettes anyone?

GOD DAMMIT Mushroomguy12

 

[Mushroomguy12]

GOD DAMMIT Mushroomguy12

Ninja'd.

 

[SpectreJordan]

Yeah, to be honest Crash has barely being mentioned in the last months. Same goes for Doomslayer or Dante. When they're mentioned, it's because someone makes a list of some popular 3rd party names, or because it's "I'm tired of these 5-6 third party characters being always discussed" time, when I'd say those characters have barely being discussed recently.

The exception would be Hayabusa, who gained a resurgence thanks to Steve and Vergeben saying Koei talked with Nintendo for Smash. But before that, Hayabusa wasn't really frequently discussed in speculation for a long time. November/December of 2019 was the last time when Hayabusa was a hot topic.

Bingo. The funny thing with calling out Hayabusa is that we’ve only been considering him likely again for just over a month now.

Well if we want to talk about something new, how about this.

Do you think there has ever been a third party company who has paid Nintendo to be included in Smash? Or maybe they gave their content away for practically free?

When I say this, I don't just mean characters, I mean things like spirits and trophies as well.

Alongside Rayman & Shantae who were already mentioned, I imagine Pac-Man & the other Namco content are practically free since they develop the game.

 

[PeridotGX]

Why does the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia even want shareholding of SNK?

King of Saudi Arabia: Son, it's almost Christmas. What do you want?
Prince: I like playing as Terry Bogard in Super Smash Bros, maybe an SNK Game?
King: Say no more.