Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[Noipoi]

So, the next Nintendo Direct...when do you all think it will be announced? Place your bets.

Tuesday

 

[SPEN18]

Can you imagine a Star Fox game with a more fully fleshed out competitive multiplayer, featuring multiple highly unique playable characters and an actual competitive meta?

(and good online)

 

[CannonStreak]

Tuesday

How are you sure on that?

 

[SPEN18]

You know, I didn't even consider this, but its makes too much sense with how Pyoro has approached hinting this info.

He does seem to enjoy flexing on other leakers

 

[Hadokeyblade]

Never played it isn't that the wiiU game?

Its th other Gamecube game after Adventures.

They actually progress the universe of Star fox beyond 64 and Adventures.
The team fights a threat that isnt Andross, Krystal is a member of the team, the gameplay has a split between traditional starfox space shooter gameplay and on-foot third person shooter levels where Fox leaves the arwing to fight enemies on the ground.

This was the perfect way to move the series forward and it just didnt go anywhere.

 

[dream1ng]

How are you sure on that?

Recently general Directs have been on Wednesdays, announced the day before. Based on the leaks coming out now, the next one seems imminent, and this would be the closest timeframe that fits recent precedent.

There are exceptions, so earlier is possible, but an announcement on the 12th for a show the next day seems the best bet.

 

[TheQuester]

I honestly i don't think we're getting a Direct this month...i could see another one happening early 2024.

 

[Stratos]

About Metroid Prime 4, I don't know about you but I seem to be giving up on the thought of it ever coming out.

 

[Noipoi]

How are you sure on that?

I'm psychic

 

[Sucumbio]

About Metroid Prime 4, I don't know about you but I seem to be giving up on the thought of it ever coming out.

I have faith. Dread has a very strong performance. Then there's Prime remake for Switch and hope they'll add Echoes and Corruption in a lead up to 4.

 

[dream1ng]

I honestly i don't think we're getting a Direct this month...i could see another one happening early 2024.

Would you like to make an avatar bet?

About Metroid Prime 4, I don't know about you but I seem to be giving up on the thought of it ever coming out.

May want to reserve judgment until we learn about Switch 2 software.

 

[Noipoi]

Prime 4 is gonna be a showcase game along with the reveal of the Switch 2, I'm telling you guys.

Along with a new 3d Mario and something really gimmicky like 1-2 Switch.

 

[Stratos]

I have faith. Dread has a very strong performance. Then there's Prime remake for Switch and hope they'll add Echoes and Corruption in a lead up to 4.

May want to reserve judgment until we learn about Switch 2 software.

Prime 4 is gonna be a showcase game along with the reveal of the Switch 2, I'm telling you guys.
Along with a new 3d Mario and something really gimmicky like 1-2 Switch.

These give me some hope.

 

[dream1ng]

Prime 4 is gonna be a showcase game along with the reveal of the Switch 2, I'm telling you guys.

Along with a new 3d Mario and something really gimmicky like 1-2 Switch.

That all makes sense to me. Especially if the next Switch is managing PS5-level visuals with its DLSS witchcraft as per those Gamescom claims.

Though I'm not sure the world is ready for MC Horace in such high fidelity. Which is why we'll never see him again.

 

[CannonStreak]

I'm psychic

Yeah, sure.

Probably Tuesday, assuming it’s on the 13th. I was going to say it would be announced on a Monday, but then I realized that this coming Monday would not be a good time to announce a Direct.

Yeah, the 13th makes sense, though I still think it will be announced on Monday. If I recall correctly, one of the last Nintendo Directs this year was announced on a Monday. I could be wrong, but I do recall something about waiting two days after the announcement for that previous Direct was made.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

I honestly i don't think we're getting a Direct this month...i could see another one happening early 2024.

We have gotten a direct in September every year since the Switch launched.

 

[Wonder Smash]

I'm inclined to say Sakurai would be too occupied negotiating with the existing third parties for returning characters, and it's hard to justify starting negotiations with a company that doesn't have that existing relationship to build off of when there are so many viable characters from the third parties that have a presence in Smash already. Even minor representation, like the River City representation from ARC System.

They seemed to have no problems starting new negotiations with other companies before. I can't picture them not doing it again, as I'm sure they would like to work on their relations with other companies.

As far as the ones already involved in Smash, I think only certain ones will get playable reps. Koei Tecmo and Arc System Works are likely to get playable reps. Ubisoft and Marvelous could but I'm not as confident.

But I can't picture Nintendo sticking with the same companies. That's why I bring up Nihon Falcom. They've really been on a roll lately and Sakurai even acknowledged them in one of his videos (which is no surprise do to his obvious love for RPGs). And of course, they're very important to the RPG genre. That's at least of one company I think they would go for in the next game.

 

[TheQuester]

We have gotten a direct in September every year since the Switch launched.

My memory is pretty bad...but i'm sure we didn't have a single direct for a whole year once?

 

[CannonStreak]

My memory is pretty bad...but i'm sure we didn't have a single direct for a whole year once?

I believe that was all during the first year of Covid.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

My memory is pretty bad...but i'm sure we didn't have a single direct for a whole year once?

Yeah.

And even then we still got a Partner Direct in September.

 

[Guynamednelson]

My memory is pretty bad...but i'm sure we didn't have a single direct for a whole year once?

2020? Even then, you should know why that year lacked Directs.

 

[EarlTamm]

I wonder if Pyoro is just going to routinely stir the pot until the Direct comes out, which if it is Tuesday, I guess won't be super long all things considered.

Spoiler

I wonder if he is going to add more context to his last big hint, which was him asking what would be the closing announcement. Clearly he wants people to rack their brains over it, so I don't think it will be related to anything he has already hinted at.

 

[CapitaineCrash]

They seemed to have no problems starting new negotiations with other companies before. I can't picture them not doing it again, as I'm sure they would like to work on their relations with other companies.

As far as the ones already involved in Smash, I think only certain ones will get playable reps. Koei Tecmo and Arc System Works are likely to get playable reps. Ubisoft and Marvelous could but I'm not as confident.

But I can't picture Nintendo sticking with the same companies. That's why I bring up Nihon Falcom. They've really been on a roll lately and Sakurai even acknowledged them in one of his videos (which is no surprise do to his obvious love for RPGs). And of course, they're very important to the RPG genre. That's at least of one company I think would go for in the next game.

I think Nihon Falcom and Level 5 are the most likely companies with no representation to get content in a next Smash.

 

[Hadokeyblade]

I think Nihon Falcom and Level 5 are the most likely companies with no representation to get content in a next Smash.

I had the most random train of thought, Kiryu joins smash and we eventually get a Yokai watch spirit event (assuming spirits come back) and the Jibanyan spirit has you fighting Kiryu.

Something that absolutely nobody outside of Japan will get, because during Yokai watch 4 whre most of the story is set 30 years into the future of this series's world, Jibanyan now a bigger ghost cat has the voice of Kiryu instead of the cutesy voice.

I think that would be funny.

 

[SPEN18]

I wonder if Pyoro is just going to routinely stir the pot until the Direct comes out

I am already tired of this manner of teasing, hinting, and, intended or not, manipulation of the fanbase

I mean that's what many leaks are, probably shouldn't expect anything less I guess

 

[DarthEnderX]

Would you be ok with mobile characters joining Smash Bros? Like Granblue Fantasy, Angry Birds...

I wouldn't be interested, but I wouldn't be like, "Not allowed!"

I personally think Star fox assault was the perfect direction for the franchise, i really liked that game.

The perfect direction for StarFox...is to JUST MAKE MORE STARFOX 64!

I think Nihon Falcom and Level 5 Koei Tecmo are the most likely companies with no representation to get content in a next Smash.

Fixed.

 

[EarlTamm]

I am already tired of this manner of teasing, hinting, and, intended or not, manipulation of the fanbase

I mean that's what many leaks are, probably shouldn't expect anything less I guess

Ehh, I prefer it over just outright spoiling the exacts of whats coming. At least this way there is still some speculation, surprise, and it probably makes things on their end easier.

 

[SPEN18]

Ehh, I prefer it over just outright spoiling the exacts of whats coming. At least this way there is still some speculation, surprise, and it probably makes things on their end easier.

It's one thing if you're not saying everything you know or not giving specifics (I mean, by leaking anything, already somebody is saying more than they should), but it's not good to communicate it in a way that plays with people's expectations.

Again I don't know this particular person and don't want to jump to conclusions about their intentions; maybe they are just thinking it'll be fun for people this way. It's still not the best way of delivering info, though again there's not really a "good" way to break an agreement, whether that be on their part or their source's.

 

[dream1ng]

I think the new companies that offer characters with the strongest global prominence are the likeliest to join.

Of course most of the best options in that regard are already covered by the companies already present (including ABK under MS). I suppose options like Koei-Tecmo (w/ Ryu Hayabusa, even though Ninja Gaiden leans west) and Level-5 (w/ Layton, assuming the comeback sticks) would be fairly strong choices from that pool. Others like ASW (w/ probably Sol from GG) and Spike Chunsoft (w/ Monokuma) would be plausible too. And then there's always Travis, but as to what state his series/popularity will be in down the road, who knows.

Choices like Rayman/Ubisoft seem obvious from our vantage, but he really has much less of a foothold in Japan. Not that he couldn't happen, it's just... a very lopsided choice, which hurts his odds. And there's Assassin's Creed, which I suspect is bigger there but... Rayman at least has demand.

Nihon Falcom... may put out a lot of games, and have done so for a long time, but they don't have any characters nearly as prolific generally as third-parties usually offer. I just think other companies have IPs which align more with what Smash goes for.

Of course there's western companies like Take-Two, Embracer, Valve, etc. Most of those series lean fairly western, and lack specific Smash demand, but you never know who might show up as a dark horse candidate. There are certainly big series within those companies. Though if the series barely even exists in Japan, as in, the games don't get released, I wouldn't hold my breath. Oh, and suppose there's also Epic/Fortnite.

I also don't think we can overlook China, particularly in terms of Genshin Impact and (via Tencent) League of Legends. Both of those series are huge all over the globe. Neither has had their main game on a Nintendo system (though both are allegedly still coming), which would, if nothing else, remove some contention around their inclusion, but we'll see how things look down the line.

Plus there's indies. I think next game we'll get at least one as playable. I would, again, look to those with successful global standing as likely options. That's a shorter list, considering many indies skew one way or another. I think most of the likeliest choices got some sort of representation in Ultimate.

Basically I'm of the mind the characters with strong global appeal will remain those who are chosen, and exceptions will exist but be fairly scant and probably somewhat exceptional in their standing, whether in size or demand, to offset the imbalance.

 

[Pacack]

I just want to clarify that my original intent by mentioning companies with no represention in Smash specifically includes as little as Spirits. So I do believe Koei Tecmo, Arc System Works, and Ubisoft are fair game.

I don't see a need to branch out to third parties they have zero history negotiating with considering the sheer pool of options, especially with how hard it will be to keep the third parties they have now. (I admittedly could see Layton happening, but I think he's just too low on the priority list when you look at all the other third party options.)

(Also, at smashkirby 's request, I'll post my reasoning for all my characters in my roster soon.)

 

[Hadokeyblade]

We have hyrule warriors spirits, thats koei tecmo.

 

[dream1ng]

I just want to clarify that my original intent by mentioning companies with no represention in Smash specifically includes as little as Spirits. So I do believe Koei Tecmo, Arc System Works, and Ubisoft are fair game.

I don't see a need to branch out to third parties they have zero history negotiating with considering the sheer pool of options, especially with how hard it will be to keep the third parties they have now. (I admittedly could see Layton happening, but I think he's just too low on the priority list when you look at all the other third party options.)

(Also, at smashkirby 's request, I'll post my reasoning for all my characters in my roster soon.)

There's no need to branch out to third-parties not currently involved at all. But once you have Sega, Capcom and Namco on board there's no need to go any further than that, those three could supply enough for a few games' worth. With Square and Konami too, forget about it.

It's seemingly always been more about the character/IP than the ease of attaining them. They brought in companies like Bethesda just for costumes, and ASW just for spirits. I anticipate the next Smash adds at least one company who hasn't been part of things in any capacity so far.

Also once the real cuts begin, they probably won't aim to bring back every company involved on the roster, at least in terms of branches of the company. At a certain point there will be some degree of cycling in and out with third-parties.

We have hyrule warriors spirits, thats koei tecmo.

We have Fatal Frame AT, that's Koei-Tecmo IP.

 

[Pacack]

smashkirby
I am working on my character analysis and will post it when I'm done, but am on my work week still and have long days, so I've yet to finish writing it up. I hope to finish it tomorrow evening or during the day Monday. (I realized I forgot a few characters, and do want to be thorough.)

There's no need to branch out to third-parties not currently involved at all. But once you have Sega, Capcom and Namco on board there's no need to go any further than that, those three could supply enough for a few games' worth. With Square and Konami too, forget about it.

It's seemingly always been more about the character/IP than the ease of attaining them. They brought in companies like Bethesda just for costumes, and ASW just for spirits. I anticipate the next Smash adds at least one company who hasn't been part of things in any capacity so far.

Also once the real cuts begin, they probably won't aim to bring back every company involved on the roster, at least in terms of branches of the company. At a certain point there will be some degree of cycling in and out with third-parties.

I do disagree with you, but with the utmost respect. I recognize that I could be wrong.

To be clear, I am saying that I don't imagine us getting a character from a company not yet affiliated with Smash Bros., but could definitely see new costumes, Spirits (or new game equivalents,) and the like from a new company. I just think that, if Sakurai has been thinking about including a character from a new company, he would have established the relationship with them in Ultimate's lifespan - adding the River City Spirits in DLC is a good example, forming a closer relationship with Arc System Works as you pointed out. He finalizes project plans so quickly after that; I just can't imagine him waiting until the game is formally in development before forming that existing Smash relationship.

 

[Curious Villager]

Eh I doubt Sakurai/Nintendo are going to go out of their way to prioritize and renegotiate with every single third party that already has content in smash before and avoid including any new ones as a result in the next game. They didn't bother to bring back the Bit Trip runner guy from Smash 4 into Ultimate after all (and I'm fairly sure there was another third party in the 3DS version that didn't return either...), and I doubt Sakurai is arbitrarily going to avoid any new companies like Spike Chunsoft, Nihon Falcom or Level-5 because he had to prioritize renegotiating the Warframe guy to get his content in the next game again...

There is definitely going to be some cycling through.

But that's probably just me...

 

[dream1ng]

I do disagree with you, but with the utmost respect. I recognize that I could be wrong.

To be clear, I am saying that I don't imagine us getting a character from a company not yet affiliated with Smash Bros., but could definitely see new costumes, Spirits (or new game equivalents,) and the like from a new company. I just think that, if Sakurai has been thinking about including a character from a new company, he would have established the relationship with them in Ultimate's lifespan - adding the River City Spirits in DLC is a good example, forming a closer relationship with Arc System Works as you pointed out. He finalizes project plans so quickly after that; I just can't imagine him waiting until the game is formally in development before getting that existing Smash relationship begun.

Well, I could be wrong as well. We won't really know until the next game is done, which will be... a long time from now.

I think the issue with saying "if Sakurai has been thinking about including a character from a new company, he would have established the relationship with them in Ultimate's lifespan" is, one, not all characters that will be included next time will date back to being considered this time, two, just considering a character doesn't inherently entail any work to contact that company, and three, Sakurai doesn't choose all the characters.

There's also an issue with "he finalizes project plans so quickly after that; I just can't imagine him waiting until the game is formally in development before getting that existing Smash relationship begun". Not all characters are in the initial project plan. DLC characters are being conceptualized, negotiated, licensed and developed far after base selection. Ultimate's project plan was devised in 2015. Persona 5 and Three Houses weren't even out at that time, and Banjo wasn't negotiated for until 2018. It stands to reason a company like SNK wasn't involved until, probably, the year they were assembling FP1, which seems like, given the timing of the choices therein, 2018, which would've been three years post project plan.

Plus Disney didn't get involved until literally everything else was sorted. They don't have to spend multiple games cozying up to third-parties, they just have to make an offer the company is amenable to. If anything, a company would probably be happier to be approached about a character than about some pngs that eventually, years later, maybe turns into a character. Plus, Smash may not, but Nintendo does have existing relationships with basically all these companies.

You think Ubisoft would say no to playable inclusion with Smash 6 if Smash 4 and Ultimate hadn't featured any Ubisoft content? I don't. You think Level-5 or Epic would say no? I don't. Valve, Netherrealm, Falcom, NIS, they've all expressed a desire to see their characters in Smash. And I don't think there's any reason to believe Sakurai/Nintendo are averse to approaching new companies, they bring more into the fold every game.

 

[Stratos]

I believe absolutely no 3rd party video game company would refuse Nintendo to loan or rent (either word is correct although I personally think "rent" is the correct word) their characters to be included in Super Smash Bros. games, because after all, 3rd party companies gain something.

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

3rd party stuff is weird.

When we get a character, it's usually from a company Sakurai hasn't worked with. Rareware is technically the only real example of getting content in Smash before a character(which is not related to the DKC series so much as they had an intentional reference to Goldeneye 007 up to Melee. However, we kind of don't know the context of its licensing, if any. As it's a game on Nintendo, made by Rareware and developed by other companies, it could've been 3rd party content for the likeness for sure. We know in Melee, for the international versions, it's from Rareware's game specifically. Only the Japanese one attempts to downplay this, but the PAL version just says it's straight-out from Goldeneye 007. This is also notable because the game was delayed a bit to come out and was the only time they outright changed the characters, being basically a glorified Patch).

When we get more characters from a company, sometimes it's only related to them. Capcom USA for instance isn't literally at the beck and call of Capcom Co LTD. They could legally say no to Ryu and that's that. It's just better to say the companies are very much working together as branches, but are still different. Meanwhile Square-Enix is known for rarely working together overall, often keeping their Square and Enix stuff separated(they can appear in the same game, but it's usually more separate in a way). Both FF and DQ are owned by multiple licensed people/companies as is, which is easily why they rarely are put together directly. Hero got pure Enix content, and Sephiroth got pure Square content too for that reason. That said, this isn't often the case either way. Konami is completely different in that it got its second character set with no odd "second branches" stuff. All the same company quite literally. Bandai-Namco is the same, though only got two characters(and Bandai has zero content at this time). Sega is actually an interesting case since characters got in after it actually owned the new companies(Atlus) or only hired a developer(Platinum Games), making it the first Company to get three characters with no actual "branches" to speak of. Though to be fair, Atlus was its own company at one point too. The timing is funnier in that regard. Microsoft would be the same way as Sega for its characters, though like Sony, mainly bought companies to own the characters of. I don't actually remember Microsoft making their own straight-out characters and games, just hiring other game creators instead and buying out some companies or franchises respectively. Being they didn't get into gaming like Nintendo did, it makes sense. It was more console first than game ideas in particular. Sony's the same way. And then you have SNK, the only company to be super generous anyway. There's too many variables, really~

Pokemon's not an example of anything either since while being partially owned by a 3rd party, it was there from day one, but is pretty much a Nintendo Property. Only key difference is that they don't fully own it. That, and they have their own unique merged branch to determine how Pokemon is used called The Pokemon Company(which consists of parts of Nintendo, Creatures Inc. and GameFreak). They're a very weird situation.

But yeah, I'd say it's best to not put a huge amount of stock into "already worked with them" when it comes to hopefully getting their first character specifically after having non-character content. It really never happened in a straight example. Not that it can't, obviously. It's just there's no real precedent for it at this time, so it's not an easy prediction to go with(no evidence for it).

I believe absolutely no 3rd party video game company would refuse Nintendo to loan or rent (either word is correct although I personally think "rent" is the correct word) their characters to be included in Super Smash Bros. games, because after all, 3rd party companies gain something.

Sega actually refused Sonic the first time around, and there's some rumors about 4 where they gave a bit of trouble too. We also don't know the context of Snake in 4. Konami could've outright said no during that time. Or it was considered and dropped due to Konami being a hot mess(Nintendo could've said no first. Sakurai could've felt it wasn't a good time to try and deal with a crazy company. It's variable).

Just saying we at least know for sure companies aren't gung ho about saying yes as much as you'd think they'd want to. There's factors beyond free advertising. Things like competitors(this is especially why Sony is so unlikely. Microsoft's usual options at least were characters that were not console-exclusive, so it makes a bit of sense why they would go for it). Sony however isn't nearly as cooperative even without that factor. They are particular mean about crossplay(which is dumb, since it's not like it's a console-exclusive game in the first place in cases like Minecraft or Fortnite). Like, I can understand not wanting their character on another console, but they've agreed to skins in Fortnite(which in a twist made them canon characters, not cameos like in Minecraft), which makes the pushback against crossplay somewhat jarring.

 

[Pacack]

Well, I could be wrong as well. We won't really know until the next game is done, which will be... a long time from now.

I think the issue with saying "if Sakurai has been thinking about including a character from a new company, he would have established the relationship with them in Ultimate's lifespan" is, one, not all characters that will be included next time will date back to being considered this time, two, just considering a character doesn't inherently entail any work to contact that company, and three, Sakurai doesn't choose all the characters.

There's also an issue with "he finalizes project plans so quickly after that; I just can't imagine him waiting until the game is formally in development before getting that existing Smash relationship begun". Not all characters are in the initial project plan. DLC characters are being conceptualized, negotiated, licensed and developed far after base selection. Ultimate's project plan was devised in 2015. Persona 5 and Three Houses weren't even out at that time, and Banjo wasn't negotiated for until 2018. It stands to reason a company like SNK wasn't involved until, probably, the year they were assembling FP1, which seems like, given the timing of the choices therein, 2018, which would've been three years post project plan.

Plus Disney didn't get involved until literally everything else was sorted. They don't have to spend multiple games cozying up to third-parties, they just have to make an offer the company is amenable to. If anything, a company would probably be happier to be approached about a character than about some pngs that eventually, years later, maybe turns into a character. Plus, Smash may not, but Nintendo does have existing relationships with basically all these companies.

You think Ubisoft would say no to playable inclusion with Smash 6 if Smash 4 and Ultimate hadn't featured any Ubisoft content? I don't. You think Level-5 or Epic would say no? I don't. Valve, Netherrealm, Falcom, NIS, they've all expressed a desire to see their characters in Smash. And I don't think there's any reason to believe Sakurai/Nintendo are averse to approaching new companies, they bring more into the fold every game.

All that is fair. I guess my point is more that I don't expect Sakurai to increase the legal workload he's already gonna have cut out for him in trying to get back the Ultimate characters.

Keep in mind that, despite the number of third party characters in the game tripling from 6 in Smash 4 to 18 in Smash Ultimate (counting Ken and Richter), the number of companies that owned those characters only went from 4 (Bandai Namco, Capcom, SEGA, and Square Enix) to 8 (Konami's return, Microsoft, SNK, and Disney for Sora who's half a Square Enix character). Looking at the companies that got closely involved with Smash's roster, Sakurai initially approached Konami because of his goal to bring back Snake, and he only approached Disney because they had to sign off on Sora's inclusion.

Of the remaining two, Microsoft was probably more of a legal headache, but it sounds like Nintendo asked Sakurai to approach them for Steve's inclusion to begin with, and I suspect (though there is no proof) that Banjo was a package deal with Steve and that Banjo came out first because he was significantly easier to program.

So Sakurai doesn't make it a habit to approach third party companies for characters willy-nilly. While it looks like a huge jump going from 4 companies to 8, there's a compelling reason Sakurai approached three of those four new companies. SNK is the odd one out, and it seems like they were extremely easy to work with, as they're a small company relative to the scope of Smash, and likely would have done anything Sakurai asked. If Sakurai doesn't have a reason to complicate the legal scope of Smash Bros., I don't think he does.


On a semi-related note, going outside of the scope of playable characters, there are 55 "minor third party universes" in Smash Bros. Ultimate according to the wiki, meaning franchises that do not have a playable character, a stage, an assist trophy, or an item. If we include any third party franchises that don't have characters: assist trophies add 5 (Bomberman, Fatal Frame, Monster Hunter, Shovel Knight, Virtua Fighter,) items add 1 (Galaxian), and Dig Dug which previously had an enemy in Smash Run but lost it in Ultimate isn't listed on the wiki. That means there are 61 third party franchises in Smash that do not have playable characters. 49 of these are owned by a company that also already has a character in Smash Bros.

(PlatinumGames is complicated because it does kinda have Bayonetta as a playable character, but legally the IP is owned by SEGA and published by Nintendo. They do not technically have a character they own in Smash, but are represented by Wonderful 101 in a non-character capacity also. Make of that what you will.)

The remaining 12 franchises, are owned by 8 companies, Marvelous (who has three), Ubisoft (who also has three), StudioMDHR, Arc System Works, WayForward, The Tetris Corporation, Toby Fox, and Tencent all have some sort of nonplayable representation in the game. 5 of these companies have mii costumes (Marvelous has Travis, Ubisoft has Altair and the Rabbids headgear, StudioMDHR has Cuphead, Wayforward has Shantae, and Toby Fox has Sans.) The others are all represented by spirits.

Bandai-Namco is the same, though only got one character(and Bandai has zero content at this time).

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

Pacack Sora isn't half-a-Disney character. Square-Enix has absolutely no ownership of him and any time Disney decides to ask for their input is more of a courtesy and respect than anything else. They obviously will continue to hire them to make the games because they have the right experience for what Disney wants. It's a common sense thing. If SE does something Disney doesn't like, they can always find someone else. They probably won't want to find another developer, mind you. It's just that it's pretty much their franchise to decide things on.

He's 100% Disney through and through. Disney just knows for a fact it makes way more sense to have Nomura handle any of the special details once you have all the Licensing complete. Who else can represent him the best than the guy in charge of the games.

As for Platinum Games, it's exactly that. They don't have a playable character. If they get one, awesome. There's no technicality(unless you mean just that "a character in Smash" refers to any character being represented in any manner, but I presume you mean playable) on that end.

Basically, they either legally own the character, or it's not theirs playable in Smash. There's really no complications or technicalities etc. When you have someone like Snake who returns, it's also because the situation between Kojima and Konami is done. He's no longer with the company so there's nothing to deal with on Nintendo's end. At worst, Sakurai is probably not able to ask Kojima for any opinions on it as part of the licensing agreement. I mean, it would suck, but that makes sense.

I'm trying to remember if the context was "getting one character right away" or if I spoke of it wrong. Honestly, I thought the context was completely different, but it's 4 in the morning, lol. Fixed, though. Thank you.

I've been working on countless things, including massive pixelart updates. Whether an edited base or otherwise. It's time consuming, heh.

 

[waddledeeonredyoshi]

Spoiler: Direct Spoilers

Who is the target audience for these Mario vs DK games? Do they even do that well?
I doubt the game would conflict with the development of a proper new DK platformer but I foresee big backlash in any case.