I'm not sure what I think of the increasing reliance on monopolization on Microsoft to make up for underwhelming exclusive options (not just vs. Sony, but vs. themselves. Why buy an Xbox when Windows has everything you'd want on it?), but I am sure of what I think this means for speculation.
Crash, Chief and DOOM are now all in competition with each other... on paper. We've seen so many patterns break, but "one third party franchise per company in any given series of newcomers" has survived all this time. Will it last forever as well? Or perhaps, it will broken early into next title.
Hey speaking of, here's the patterns that were fully never broken or never broken in practice.
- Assist Trophies are permanently disqualified from playability, relative to that game. In this case, permanently means regardless of base game or DLC status.
- Mii Costumes are permanently disqualified from playability, relative to that game.
- This is the asterisk case; had the Switch not gotten in the way, it appears as though Rex would have been included after his Mii dropped. Depending on if it counts as base game era or DLC era, it would be solved by appending DLC at the start. This conundrum exists for Piranha Plant as well, being a DLC character who was developed during the base game, so it stands to reason Rex's Mii was a base game one given the position of unpurchaseable DLC.
- Only one third party franchise per company will get a newcomer in any given set of newcomers. (Base Game, DLC per pack).
That's... about it. Everything else I could think of was busted. Which of these sounds like something that the next installment is most likely to challenge, and which of these are straight up unbreakable rules in your mind?