Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[Wonder Smash]

I honestly wish Sony bought Activision-Blizzard. Somewhat surprised they didn't.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

It's gonna be interesting to see Sony's strategy, with Microsoft clearly trying to squeeze them in the West while Nintendo's dominating Japan.

I know there's been talk of who Microsoft might get next, or if Sony might aim for their own acquisitions to compensate, but for Eastern third parties that'll be tricky either way. Japan really frowns on outsider countries owning their prominent companies, so that might count out the former, while the latter might struggle to put such developers to the most effective use if they can't get any headway in their home country as far as hardware sales. (And that's assuming no market obstacles by Sony in getting such companies to begin with)

Heck, even as greedy as Konami is, it's in their best interest to stay a third party given the easy revenue they can get in the Japanese market via modestly budgeted, but successful titles on Switch.

 

[PeridotGX]

I honestly wish Sony bought Activision-Blizzard. Somewhat surprised they didn't.

Sony has about 10% of the cash reserves that Microsoft has. They couldn't if they wanted to.

 

[RileyXY1]

It's gonna be interesting to see Sony's strategy, with Microsoft clearly trying to squeeze them in the West while Nintendo's dominating Japan.

I know there's been talk of who Microsoft might get next, or if Sony might aim for their own acquisitions to compensate, but for Eastern third parties that'll be tricky either way. Japan really frowns on outsider countries owning their prominent companies, so that might count out the former, while the latter might struggle to put such developers to the most effective use if they can't get any headway in their home country as far as hardware sales. (And that's assuming no market obstacles by Sony in getting such companies to begin with)

Heck, even as greedy as Konami is, it's in their best interest to stay a third party given the easy revenue they can get in the Japanese market via modestly budgeted, but successful titles on Switch.

Sony might counter this acquisition by buying out EA.

 

[Ivander]

Man, this week sure was tugging at my video game crossover desire. First with the Mario Kart 9 rumors about being a crossover and now the speculation brought with Activision being bought by Microsoft. All that's missing is a Vs. Capcom game being rumoured or announced.

 

[PeridotGX]

Sony might counter this acquisition by buying out EA.

Are you Radon? Because you're so dense you're gonna start decaying from your own weight. Sony can't buy EA, they can't buy Ubisoft, and they could barely maybe buy Take 2. They don't have nearly as much money as Microsoft. If they want to compete they're gonna go smaller - perhaps Capcom or FromSoftware.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

Sony goes for the real big sales and buys Intellvision to get that sweet, sweet Amico money.

 

[Chuderz]

Well first and foremost Crash and Spyro have been saved and can now hang out with their friends Banjo and Conker! Hooray! I really hope Microsoft sees that Toys for Bob is a platform studio and lets them rip!

I've been theorizing that this would make sense: https://smashboards.com/threads/nex...iscussion-thread.515747/page-69#post-24617998

Also Microsoft was the only real buyer in any scenario both in funds and in prospective use of the IP. I don't any of these IPs really fit with the Sony family.

The IPs are good for Microsoft. They basically have the staples of the FPS genre now with Doom, Halo, Gears of War, and COD. All the Blizzard IPs such as Overwatch, Diablo, Warcraft and Starcraft all make sense for them and each can be expanded upon further. I'm seriously hoping we can maybe get WOW on consoles and potentially a WOW2 to compete better with FF14.

Most notably Microsoft just acquired a major workhorse with just under 10,000 employees. Hopefully they can bring that number up now to an even 10k with new management dumping the old. Get rid of Kostick and his enablers at any cost. Get rid of them all.

Kind of switching topics here but I think Nintendo should be thinking about getting themselves a workhorse. SEGA would be the ideal one even if it was second-party. If they could just separate the weird Sammy portion of the business with just the game development divisions then they'd really have something. They'd finally have a workhorse to work on IP they've long neglected like F-Zero, Custom Robo, Kid Icarus and the like and wouldn't have to overwhelm one particular studio like Camelot with the sports spin-offs. Then they'd finally bring Bayonetta and Sonic into the Nintendo family in full and even acquire some decent IPs like Valkyria Chronicles and Super Monkey Ball (just though the kongs in and you're golden) and Yakuza. Even Phantasy Star Online would make for a cool Nintendo MMO I think other than a AAA Pokemon one of course but whatever I'm just speculating.

 

[Dinoman96]

Well first and foremost Crash and Spyro have been saved and can now hang out with their friends Banjo and Conker!

...in purgatory?

 

[Megadoomer]

Well first and foremost Crash and Spyro have been saved and can now hang out with their friends Banjo and Conker! Hooray! I really hope Microsoft sees that Toys for Bob is a platform studio and lets them rip!

...Considering how little Microsoft's done with Banjo, Conker, or almost all of the Rare IPs since acquiring Rare (Killer Instinct seems like the biggest exception - maybe Perfect Dark if that new game comes out), that's probably not the best example.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

With Crash and Spyro, if Microsoft sees enough value to keep them active, they will be.

Especially now, between Game Pass, select releases of franchises on Switch, & more streamlined process for PC ports, they might be in better position now to be taken advantage of than various Rare franchises were 20 years ago.

 

[Chuderz]

...Considering how little Microsoft's done with Banjo, Conker, or almost all of the Rare IPs since acquiring Rare (Killer Instinct seems like the biggest exception - maybe Perfect Dark if that new game comes out), that's probably not the best example.

Will have to see. Double Fine and Toys for Bob have proven themselves as great platformer developers. I think it'd be a waste of their talents not to let them progress the genre forward.

Anyways while I think it's fun to speculate it on my honest opinion is that this is overall terrible for the market. Unless GampePass comes to Nintendo and Sony consoles this will negatively impact competitive forces in the industry at large. Honestly a handshake between Microsoft and Sony allowing for their respective streaming services to be on the other would be fair enough I guess and might make sense considering that all 3 of them are teaming together in regards to streaming tech. Not sure why Nintendo is there though honestly hahaha. Late-Stage-Capitalism and all that. Anyway on to some borderline baseless speculation!

Sony should be considering some major acquisitions at this point. FromSoftware with Elden Ring is primed to go up in value and fits perfectly with the Sony family. I think some other company owns FromSoftware that makes that a difficult transaction? Sony should try to find a way.

With their purchasing of EVO they should strongly be considering Arc Systems Work. Fits well with their family of games and their goals.

Other companies like Remedy, Techland and CD Projekt RED should also be pursued. All fit very well with Sony's goals.

I could also see them trying to acquire Konami's game division. Possibly even Square Enix itself. These two would have major consequences in regards to Smash but I could still see it being a possibility at least. Would be the closest thing to a hail-mary pass I think Sony would be capable of. While I believe it's obvious Sony can't afford to compete with Microsoft on this level they better just go for it sooner rather than later because it only gets worse from here on out and that's especially the case considering Sony's primary brand is Playstation.

There are literally headlines of yesteryear of Microsoft looking to purchase Valve, EA, PubG and Warner Bros. Games. I don't think any pathetic shell of US anti-trust law is going to stop them at this point. The political culture of the US is way too far-gone to enforce any of that meaningfully. If Microsoft actually is capable of getting Valve from Gabe Newell's disgusting hands then that's a definitive killshot. All of a sudden Microsoft have even more beloved IP, VR tech to pair with their systems, a promising opening into the handheld gaming market and ****ing Steam to go with gamepass. Valve would be like in the 100 billion dollar range but with this purchase, it's been definitively shown that that's money Microsoft is very willing to throw out there.

Sony really needs to take notice of this one because again Sony lives or dies on Playstation. They don't have comparatively as much money but they better start using the money they do have to secure Playstation's future or it's over for them.

 

[HyperSomari64]

So Neptunia was right. Microsoft will buy Square Enix as a big middle-finger towards Sony's video game division.

For Context, the Gold Third of the Xbox nation is based on SE.

 

[DaUsername]

GUYS! IT HAPPENED! IT HAPPENED AGAIN!

There was a problem fetching the tweet

Microsoft threw another curveball at us!!!!!!! Crash and Spyro are Microsoft reps now!

So Crash is now owned by the only western company to ever get a playable character in Smash.

Cool.

 

[Wonder Smash]

Isn't there a law in which Western companies can't buy Japanese companies?

 

[HyperSomari64]

So Neptunia was right. Microsoft will buy Square Enix as a big middle-finger towards Sony's video game division.

For Context, the Gold Third of the Xbox nation is based on SE.

This fella right here

 

[TCT~Phantom]

I think Microsoft will be a decent home for Crash and Spyro.

If ****ing Battletoads can get some love from our Microsoft overlords, Crash and Spyro will probably get some love especially if they decide to move around studios after the purchase. Given how Microsoft works, I think they will do their best to structure Act Blizz in a way that makes sure nothing goes to waste. Look at how they handled Bethesda for a decent example. Microsoft is a pretty benevolent corporate overlord at least in gaming.

I think the ramifications of this won't be truly felt for say 2-4 years though. Much like how Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo were timed exclusives for the PS5 due to previous deals, we will probably see a good number of Act Blizz properties show up on Sony and Nintendo's hardware in the next few years. After that, who is to say.

There are literally headlines of yesteryear of Microsoft looking to purchase Valve, EA, PubG and Warner Bros. Games. I don't think any pathetic shell of US anti-trust law is going to stop them at this point. The political culture of the US is way too far-gone to enforce any of that meaningfully. If Microsoft actually is capable of getting Valve from Gabe Newell's disgusting hands then that's a definitive killshot. All of a sudden Microsoft have even more beloved IP, VR tech to pair with their systems, a promising opening into the handheld gaming market and ****ing Steam to go with gamepass. Valve would be like in the 100 billion dollar range but with this purchase, it's been definitively shown that that's money Microsoft is very willing to throw out there..

People love to bring up trust laws and at every corporate merger, but this is not one of those situations. Act Blizz, while and expensive company with a lot of strong IPs under their belt, does not meet the qualifications of a monopoly under US law. There is significant competition with Sony and Nintendo, there is a clear open market, and Sony having a slight lead in console sales. Trust laws aren't really getting used much because even as big as a company like Disney or Microsoft gets right now, they will not have the same degree of market domination that say Standard Oil or US Steel had.

That being said if Microsoft did buy Valve, you would have grounds for a potential monopoly case, if only due to the company owning windows now owning the main method of PC gaming, but that is a whole other can of worms .


---------------------------------------------------

I wanted to tackle how this effects Smash in particular, so I will talk about who this helps. Keep in mind I am assuming right now we do not get too many radical shifts in terms of Act Blizz IPs and relevance in the next few years.

Crash: This is the big one. The white whale of Activision in Smash. I'll be blunt, while most of the Act Blizz characters benefit from being under Microsoft's wing at least a little due to having a foot in the door, Crash is the biggest winner. We know that MIcrosoft knows what fans want. There is a reason we got Banjo before even ****ing Minecraft. While Master Chief, Doomguy, and to a lesser extent Dovakhin are all reasonably big to big smash requests, you can't deny Crash has become one of the biggest requests for Smash out there. While Ultimate might have not been perfect timing for Crash, now we have a groundswell of support and a company that already is friendly with Nintendo with a foot in the door. If you asked me, Crash and Chief are the frontrunners for Microsoft.

Tracer: To me, this depends on if/when Overwatch 2 comes out. Its almost sad the state overwatch is in nowadays. From one of the most creative and successful games of the 2010s to a game on life support waiting for its sequel to inevitably take over for it. I won't go into my personal opinions on how Blizzard has handled Overwatch and its balance, but if Overwatch 2 does make the series relevant again right in time for Smash, I'll say she is in a decent spot.

Spyro: Spyro has to come after Crash. The two franchises are linked at the hip, Crash is far bigger and much more popular in Japan, Spyro ain't getting in before him. Afterwords, it depends on what Microsoft does with him. Unlike Crash right now, Spyro does not have this focus of support. Maybe after Crash gets in he will, but right now? Not really.

WoW: WoW is huge. Hearthstone is huge. Choosing a WoW rep is hard. Gun to my head, Illidan and Arthus are my picks. Rep Horde w Undead and Alliance w a Night Elf, they are the two most popular picks, decent stuff. That being said, competition is fierce as hell.

Diablo: I know someone at Blizz floated this idea, ehh. It could happen and Diablo certainly has a legacy behind it, but I would even bet on WoW first.

Master Chief: Chief is negatively affected if only because now there is credible competition to his crown. I love the bethesda boys, but if I am being realistic Chief is the next Microsoft pick. He is huge. There is no denying how huge it would be to have Microsoft's golden boy in smash. They know he is a huge request. Gun to my head, Chief is still one of the frontrunners and if we do get an Ult Deluxe or Smash 6 with two seasons of DLC, I do think him and Crash will probably both get in. In terms who gets in first...it could go either way, they both are some of the biggest requests now.

Dovakhin and Doomslayer: Both of these two are hurt that there is now another huge character that could get in before them. They still are reasonably likel dont get me wrong, but now with two omega big fan requests in front instead of one, it isn't exactly an ideal situation.

 

[Gengar84]

I love that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision/Blizzard are actually bringing some attention to WarCraft in Smash. As I’ve mentioned several times already, I’ve always been a huge fan of Blizzard’s worlds and characters and I think a ton of them would be awesome for Smash. Illidan is one of my favorite game characters ever and he would be an extremely cool addition to Smash.

Still, I don’t want people to forget about RARE after all this. Out of all Microsoft’s developers, RARE has the strongest history with Nintendo. I’d absolutely love to see the Battletoads and Fulgore in Smash. I’m totally fine with an entire Microsoft fighters pass since there are so many great options.

 

[dream1ng]

It's pretty crazy that who might be the top five most popular (non-indie) western characters Smash-wise are now all owned by the same company. Or at least five of the top six.

(Banjo, Steve, Chief, Crash and Doom Slayer)

 

[Chuderz]

People love to bring up trust laws and at every corporate merger, but this is not one of those situations. Act Blizz, while and expensive company with a lot of strong IPs under their belt, does not meet the qualifications of a monopoly under US law. There is significant competition with Sony and Nintendo, there is a clear open market, and Sony having a slight lead in console sales. Trust laws aren't really getting used much because even as big as a company like Disney or Microsoft gets right now, they will not have the same degree of market domination that say Standard Oil or US Steel had.

That being said if Microsoft did buy Valve, you would have grounds for a potential monopoly case, if only due to the company owning windows now owning the main method of PC gaming, but that is a whole other can of worms .

First highlight is kind of the point I was making about US political culture being too far-gone i.e. corporatized to be meaningfully enforced. Second highlight is subjective. There's no objective barometer for gauging that. It's purely based on what values (namely political values) you hold and how they inform your perspective in regards to making that comparison. I personally feel like it's crossed the line at this point same with Disney because my values inform me that that is the case.

Especially the US where basically duopolies function as quasi-monopolies with the oil market being obvious. Same with Ticketmaster and their controlled opposition in Livenation (look that up; they're literally the same corporation) and Pepsi and Coke constantly collaborating their business strategies together.

 

[PeridotGX]

It's pretty crazy that who might be the top five most popular (non-indie) western characters Smash-wise are now all owned by the same company. Or at least five of the top six.

(Banjo, Steve, Chief, Crash and Doom Slayer)

Rayman begins sweating

 

[ForsakenM]

Sony has about 10% of the cash reserves that Microsoft has. They couldn't if they wanted to.

It's because they JUST got rid of someone big in their company exposed for browsing the playgrounds for dating options.

That and Sony has just been super stupid recently. Massive Japanese censorship that goes beyond what is deemed acceptable is only the the tip of the iceberg, thought he water may not go very deep.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey...remember when you guys said that Crash can't or shouldn't get in now because that means Nintendo rewards Activision-Blizzard for being ****ty scumbags on so many levels you would think it was an expansion pack for a 3D Bubsy game?

Remember how I told you that **** doesn't matter and connecting the filth of Acti-Bliz to Crash just because they own him to deny people of a character they want in Smash in massive doves over differing definitions of proper morality is unfair to fans and the character, and that you shouldn't make a decision that punishes your consumers to set a standard you can easily set by condoning the activity and showing support in the right areas?

Welp, now I can still be right about Crash being a near-lock for the next Smash game, AND those of you who choose another side can be appeased in your sense of morality. Thanks Microsoft! Gonna be even easier to get Crash in now. Boy, sure am glad Nintendo and MS are super buddy-buddy.

Now we just need MS to pull their collectives heads out of their collectives asses and just reveal Banjo Redooie already.

 

[Will]

Hey...remember when you guys said that Crash can't or shouldn't get in now because that means Nintendo rewards Activision-Blizzard for being ****ty scumbags on so many levels you would think it was an expansion pack for a 3D Bubsy game?

Don't put words in my mouth while you stroke your ego man.

 

[dream1ng]

It's because they JUST got rid of someone big in their company exposed for browsing the playgrounds for dating options.

That's not going to greatly affect their warchest.

Hey...remember when you guys said that Crash can't or shouldn't get in now because that means Nintendo rewards Activision-Blizzard for being ****ty scumbags on so many levels you would think it was an expansion pack for a 3D Bubsy game?

Remember how I told you that **** doesn't matter and connecting the filth of Acti-Bliz to Crash just because they own him to deny people of a character they want in Smash in massive doves over differing definitions of proper morality is unfair to fans and the character, and that you shouldn't make a decision that punishes your consumers to set a standard you can easily set by condoning the activity and showing support in the right areas?

Welp, now I can still be right about Crash being a near-lock for the next Smash game, AND those of you who choose another side can be appeased in your sense of morality. Thanks Microsoft! Gonna be even easier to get Crash in now. Boy, sure am glad Nintendo and MS are super buddy-buddy.

Now we just need MS to pull their collectives heads out of their collectives asses and just reveal Banjo Redooie already.

Separating art and the artist is something that comes down to personal opinion, it's not something that lecturing others will remedy. Also, just because Kotick may leave A-B once the buyout is complete doesn't mean the power structures are currently or will be significantly revamped. The buck stopped with him, but he wasn't directly responsible for all the transgressions there.

Secondly, Spencer said he was going to reevaluate the relationship MS and A-B had thanks to these recent events, but really all they did was wait until a company was in a bad place PR-wise and pounce to get a favorable deal on them. He did the opposite of distancing himself from a troubled workplace so as to incentivize they realign in necessary ways. Now the top-level people who enabled the abuses just get bought out and MS can restructure the rest how they see fit. Until we know more about how MS intends to handle their newly acquired workforce, the morality of the development remains questionable.

If someone didn't want to support A-B characters in Smash beforehand, from my vantage, not yet changing their stance seems justifiable. If people never judged a character by the actions of their owner, that's their prerogative as well. It comes down to the beliefs of the individual, not a uniform dogma on how people should respond to layered problems like this.

But even at the height of the ****storm, this wasn't going to inhibit A-B characters getting into Smash, not the least of which is because the next Smash is genuinely years away.

 

[ForsakenM]

View attachment 343140

Don't put words in my mouth while you stroke your ego man.

If you weren't one of the many who told me that I was morally in the wrong for thinking Crash should get in the next Smash regardless of A-B, then I wasn't talking about you was I?

That's not going to greatly affect their warchest.


Separating art and the artist is something that comes down to personal opinion, it's not something that lecturing others will remedy. Also, just because Kotick may leave A-B once the buyout is complete doesn't mean the power structures are currently or will be significantly revamped. The buck stopped with him, but he wasn't directly responsible for all the transgressions there.

Secondly, Spencer said he was going to reevaluate the relationship MS and A-B had thanks to these recent events, but really all they did was wait until a company was in a bad place PR-wise and pounce to get a favorable deal on them. He did the opposite of distancing himself from a troubled workplace so as to incentivize they realign in necessary ways. Now the top-level people who enabled the abuses just get bought out and MS can restructure the rest how they see fit. Until we know more about how MS intends to handle their newly acquired workforce, the morality of the development remains questionable.

If someone didn't want to support A-B characters in Smash beforehand, from my vantage, not yet changing their stance seems justifiable. If people never judged a character by the actions of their owner, that's their prerogative as well. It comes down to the beliefs of the individual, not a uniform dogma on how people should respond to layered problems like this.

But even at the height of the ****storm, this wasn't going to inhibit A-B characters getting into Smash, not the least of which is because the next Smash is genuinely years away.

First off, A-B is SO much easier, so I'm gonna steal that but give you credit since I haven't seen anyone else do it that way before.

Secondly, I can understand the struggle of separating art from artist, but the difference here is that this is more of separating a crappy publisher who bought the rights of the art from the artist. I don't consider A-B the artist when it comes to things they didn't create or haven't been involved with long enough to assume the position of creator. To me, it's just that simple: it's companies and IPs. It's not like Crash is known for being a sexual deviant and was created by Bobby Kotick; this isn't something more akin to a content creator where they ARE the art and they have gone sour.

I would argue Phil is doing better than distancing: this can be seen as taking action to reform and protect IPs people love. A corporate cleansing, if you will, and one that was never going to happen on it's own no matter how much disgusting crap was unearthed about these people. Sure, this act benefits MS greatly and it was done at a time when they could use something against A-B as leverage, but personally...I don't see why that should matter. If a good result comes out of something, and little to no wrong was accrued to make that happen, seems like a net positive.

I'm just glad these people who think like this aren't in charge of MS or Nintendo, especially in a culture when what is seen as a cardinal social sin fluctuates so frequently. Business is business and, while morality shouldn't be absent, you also have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

Also, I never believed that it would stop Crash from getting in. My issue was that this would be the perfect climate for people to insult Crash and Crash fans were he to get in because of the people who owned him, and it's this mental process of not being able to separate things that would lead to people acting like this.

 

[Simnm]

Id

As a Master Chief supporter, losing out to Banjo and Steve was already sucky. If Chief loses out on being a "microsoft rep" due to Doomguy and/or Crash now I'm going to be...not very pleased.

Id say that doomguy is chiefs biggest competition

 

[dream1ng]

Secondly, I can understand the struggle of separating art from artist, but the difference here is that this is more of separating a crappy publisher who bought the rights of the art from the artist. I don't consider A-B the artist when it comes to things they didn't create or haven't been involved with long enough to assume the position of creator. To me, it's just that simple: it's companies and IPs. It's not like Crash is known for being a sexual deviant and was created by Bobby Kotick; this isn't something more akin to a content creator where they ARE the art and they have gone sour.

Ok. But that's just your opinion, there isn't a wrong or right answer here. It boils down to where people stand, and the only "wrong" thing to do is to force one stance onto someone else.

I would argue Phil is doing better than distancing: this can be seen as taking action to reform and protect IPs people love. A corporate cleansing, if you will, and one that was never going to happen on it's own no matter how much disgusting crap was unearthed about these people. Sure, this act benefits MS greatly and it was done at a time when they could use something against A-B as leverage, but personally...I don't see why that should matter. If a good result comes out of something, and little to no wrong was accrued to make that happen, seems like a net positive.

That's a premature conclusion given it hasn't even been a day since the announcement, the deal, iirc, won't go through until next year, and we don't know how each respective company is going to be restructured. Best to hope for the best, but it's way too early to reach conclusions.

I'm just glad these people who think like this aren't in charge of MS or Nintendo, especially in a culture when what is seen as a cardinal social sin fluctuates so frequently. Business is business and, while morality shouldn't be absent, you also have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

To some extent, yes. You can't get held up on the concerns of everyone, because you'll never be able to please everyone anyway, and someone will always have a problem with something. On the other hand, there comes a point where the ethics foregone in the pursuit of profit tends to result in the mistreatment of people somewhere along the chain.

The answer is found, as it usually is, somewhere in the middle.

 

[Will]

If you weren't one of the many who told me that I was morally in the wrong for thinking Crash should get in the next Smash regardless of A-B, then I wasn't talking about you was I?

You said "you guys", did you not?
Not "you guys who told me this".
Not "you anti-crash guys".
Not "you guys who hate blizzard".

"You guys".​

Hey...remember when -----> you guys <------ said that Crash can't or shouldn't get in now because that means Nintendo rewards Activision-Blizzard for being ****ty scumbags on so many levels you would think it was an expansion pack for a 3D Bubsy game?
Remember how I told -----> you <----- that **** doesn't matter and connecting the filth of Acti-Bliz to Crash just because they own him to deny people of a character they want in Smash in massive doves over differing definitions of proper morality is unfair to fans and the character, and that
-----> you <----- shouldn't make a decision that punishes your consumers to set a standard -----> you <----- can easily set by condoning the activity and showing support in the right areas?

Do you even have a post or a user tag to show me how malicious Smashboards users are to you by demoralizing every fiber in your being for wanting one of the currently most popular and requested video game characters for Smash Bros? Are you implying that you've been harrassed and that you nor the staff were doing anything about it? At this point I'm not even about Crash on this, the post is just sus.

Just be careful with how you throw words around, man.

 

[DarthEnderX]

I wouldn't say that many, especially when the most notable picks for Capcom overshadow the rest, which are a Resident Evil character in general(whether it be Chris, Leon, Jill or Claire), the Monster Hunter, Dante, Chun-Li, Zero and Phoenix Wright. Others, like Amaterasu and Arthur, do get alot of mentions, but don't get picked nearly as often as those six.
Namco, despite not having many, are still very notable and quite up there with those six.

As a 3rd party? Sure. But as a 1st party, things open up greatly. Lesser knowns become viable.

And bigger franchises are more likely to get several characters. I'd expect Mega Man, Street Fighter, Resident Evil and Monster Hunter to quickly reach 3+ characters.

 

[Lionfranky]

This fella right here
View attachment 343130

Microsoft tried to buy Squaresoft back in day.

It's why S-Sha (Squaresoft) was paired with Vert (Microsoft).

 

[Diddy Kong]

You said "you guys", did you not?
Not "you guys who told me this".
Not "you anti-crash guys".
Not "you guys who hate blizzard".

"You guys".​

Do you even have a post or a user tag to show me how malicious Smashboards users are to you by demoralizing every fiber in your being for wanting one of the currently most popular and requested video game characters for Smash Bros? Are you implying that you've been harrassed and that you nor the staff were doing anything about it? At this point I'm not even about Crash on this, the post is just sus.

Just be careful with how you throw words around, man.

That ironic moment when I click like on this post, saying "You" liked this.

Anyway, all these talks about what Microsoft can buy and what not are great and all, but I'm very sure Smash will have no concern with this. Simply cause with so many characters and 3rd party namesakes already in, we'd be lucky to keep the current 3rd party characters in, and not expand from them.

I just don't see it.

 

[Yamat08]

In other news, it looks like those cloud versions of Kingdom Hearts are up for pre-order now..... and a reminder that I friggin' hate it. Whenever Nintendo eventually gets around to having a new system, I hope all these damn cloud games can get re-released natively.

 

[PeridotGX]

Assuming that Activision was going to sell anyways, this is probably the best outcome. Sure monopolies are bad, but I trust Microsoft more than the other potential buyers: Google, Amazon, and Facebook.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

In other news, it looks like those cloud versions of Kingdom Hearts are up for pre-order now..... and a reminder that I friggin' hate it. Whenever Nintendo eventually gets around to having a new system, I hope all these damn cloud games can get re-released natively.

Given that Square Enix put out the Switch version of Balan Wonderworld and their general half-hearted support for their system, a lackluster Cloud port of one of their games is not exactly surprising.

Say what you will about Bethesda and Id Software, but even they at least put out a digital version of Doom Eternal for Switch.

 

[Geno Boost]

I think Microsoft should get the red carpet treatment like Square-enix currently in the next smash game but during the DLC so Crash, Master Cheif, Doom Slayer all come in since each of these character do hold huge impact with their own history
But we would be really lucky if this happens but not sure if they would really wants more western characters since their main audience are the japanese however at least Microsoft characters are not pain to get like Square-enix

 

[RileyXY1]

I think Microsoft should get the red carpet treatment like Square-enix currently in the next smash game but during the DLC so Crash, Master Cheif, Doom Slayer all come in since each of these character do hold huge impact with their own history
But we would be really lucky if this happens but not sure if they would really wants more western characters since their main audience are the japanese however at least Microsoft characters are not pain to get like Square-enix

However, I do not expect this.

 

[Gengar84]

I think Microsoft should get the red carpet treatment like Square-enix currently in the next smash game but during the DLC so Crash, Master Cheif, Doom Slayer all come in since each of these character do hold huge impact with their own history
But we would be really lucky if this happens but not sure if they would really wants more western characters since their main audience are the japanese however at least Microsoft characters are not pain to get like Square-enix

I agree but the Microsoft characters I’m most interested in are from RARE and Blizzard. Crash, Chief, and Doom Slayer are all cool as well and definitely deserve a spot but they aren’t my personal favorites. I could be wrong but I believe WarCraft is now Microsoft’s biggest IP, passing even Halo in terms of peak popularity. RARE does have a solid case itself for having such strong ties to Nintendo from the NES through N64 days.

 

[Geno Boost]

I agree but the Microsoft characters I’m most interested in are from RARE and Blizzard. Crash, Chief, and Doom Slayer are all cool as well and definitely deserve a spot but they aren’t my personal favorites. I could be wrong but I believe WarCraft is now Microsoft’s biggest IP, passing even Halo in terms of peak popularity. RARE does have a solid case itself for having such strong ties to Nintendo from the NES through N64 days.

I want Battletoads in smash but i am not expecting them to go for another rareware or blizzard character due to the lack of demands (unless if that changes in the future) however i am hoping for more representation in other forms such as assist trophy or spirits or mii costume as i am currently disappointed that Banjo-Kazooie is the only content we got from the Rareware side

 

[Gengar84]

I want Battletoads in smash but i am not expecting them to go for another rareware or blizzard character due to the lack of demands (unless if that changes in the future) however i am hoping for more representation in other forms such as assist trophy or spirits or mii costume as i am currently disappointed that Banjo-Kazooie is the only content we got from the Rareware side

Yeah, I would say they are a bit unlikely but I do think they’re definitely still possible. One thing the Battletoads have in their advantage is a moveset that can translate perfectly into Smash. An FPS character like Master Chief or Doom Slayer would be a lot more tricky to make work. I’m not writing anything off just yet and I’ll do what I can to try to build some support for RARE and Blizzard’s characters in Smash.

 

[Perkilator]

imagine if microsoft had bought activision 2 years earlier...haha...crash.... pic.twitter.com/iJ0JbCCKwK

— dille (@nescartridges) January 18, 2022

Man…