Inside this Valve, there's an Orange Box. It costs $400 000 to keep this Valve open, for 12 sec-*BOMB HAS BEEN PLANTED* (Valve Rep)
Chance: 25 % (and that's disbeliving the leak)
Now, there are some things which have not been discussed so far. Quite a bit actually.
When it comes to
Half-Life, its influence is really really visible within the company itself. Not just because of Steam, but also because modding created two games that helped cement Half-Life's legacy. Counter-Strike and Team Fortress both originated as Half-Life mods. Even though I believe CS has 0 % as a playable character (see below) it's incredibly influential and has been popular in Russia for seemingly forever (alongside Dota 2, see below). I'll talk about TF2 likewise below.
What
Portal has is a completely reworked Gravity Gun - turning it into one of the most known puzzle-solving tools out there in the Portal Gun. This is both a massive blessing and a massive curse: On one hand, it would be a one of a kind movement option. On the other, it carries massive risk (especially off stage) even to Chell herself should she get in. Still, it's got ample opportunity: If Valve shows up into Smash, Portal has a really good chance of getting at least some content in. If it's as a playable character, it'll be likely balanced around a max distance between the two portals or some other limit to prevent shenaningas.
It's understandable why people gravitate towards
TF2 when it comes to Smash. Not only the most visibly cartoon-y of the bunch, we also have Garry's Mod, the native weapons (Like Heavy's Sandvich) and the "Meet the" vids to thank for it I'm guessing. If anything, it gave the characters a certain feel like they belong in Smash. Heavy is the primary pick for most, but characters like Scout could feasibly work. That said, TF2's current state can be best described as "Needs a major shot in the arm or TF2 Episode 1: Because Overused but still Relevant Joke"), so if TF2 gets in it's likely on the back of a port or a new game.
And we come to
Dota 2, which is really in the background (I love that game though, and I've loved it since the original Dota way back. Warning, massive amounts of gushing ahead). Since Valve aquired Dota's license in 2009, it has developed Dota 2 to be one of its primary cash cows / ever green titles. With it being Steam's top game for the past 6 years. But cash ain't the only thing Dota 2's notable for:
*It has two of the original Dota's three developers working on it. The third and current, IceFrog, has worked on Dota and after that Dota 2 since 2005. Guinsoo, the second, has instead worked with LoL since 2009. FTR, the devs have snuck in quite a few references: Aghanim's Scepter is a spell-upgrading item and one of Dota's most known items, Linken's Sphere automatically blocks one spell targeted on you ever so often on a short cooldown. And there's one hero's model being outright based on FF10's Kimahri Ronso (Phantom Lancer, who spams illusions and is incredibly hard to kill if left unchecked) as well as one hero (Juggernaut) having Omnislash as his ultimate complete with the animation. Console games are not ignored even if Dota's never crossed the line.
*Dota 2 has an
infamous rivalry with LoL (approaching SNES / Genesis levels of heated), Still, Dota and Dota 2 have had immense impact on LoL through ancestry and subsuquent rivalry (and vice versa). While LoL is a carefully manicured and maintained tree when it comes to its design, Dota 2's an epileptic tree where everyone's designed like
is. Or "Everyone's broken, so no one is".
*Dota's heavily associated with the e-sports scene and it's one of Russia's absolute favorite video games. Period. China and Southeast Asia also love the game to bits, and MOBAs have stayed around worldwide for a decade at this point. My linked sig is from a Phillipine cast that became insanely memetic even in the English-speaking community.
There are still some heavy questions and problems surrounding Dota 2. MOBAs are niche-to-nonexistent in Japan which alone shuts down its chances in most peoples' minds. And, which hero do you even choose as a playable rep (I'm personally leaning towards Lina the Slayer, partly because she's an early poster child / "main" character and partly because she's very much based on the Slayers anime. In fact, she's the closest to a Slayers representative one could get. Gets around the Japan problem somewhat.) Also, how does one design for characters with no verticality normally?
FTR, I'm counting Counter-Strike and L4D as having 0 % chance of having a playable representative in Smash. Counter-Strike has two really significant problems beyond its use of real life weaponry (like the AK-47): the playable teams in this 5-on-5, 30 rounds per game economic war (first to 16 wins) are literally named Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists (possibly creating another version of the Mai problem), and a lot of maps in CS are based on real life locales. Left 4 Dead, umm, yeah. It's a shame too, but unless Valve plans on reviving L4D it's going to be overshadowed by not only its in-company competition, but also Resident Evil.
Could I see nods and cameos from these two? L4D, yes. Counter-Strike's much wonkier because they need to find something outright fictional. L4D though could see Spirits (depending on the stage allowing crossovers) or even music.
Valve's made moves recently - not just on VR, also getting onto the mobile scene with Dota Underlords. What's to say Valve won't make the jump to Nintendo? While they have vitually no history, there's that possibility of a sea change. It's really difficult to say, but if the Half-Life Tactics and Dota Underlords coming to the Switch rumors actually gained some traction before dissipating...
What's to say it's impossible?
Want: 100(0000...) %
No matter who it is, if it's Valve...
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY. Yea, I know Valve as a company has allowed or done quite a lot of bad things, but we're talking the characters here. All of them, because Sakurai choosing them would reward creativity. Remember: Half-Life spawned mods, TF2 and Dota 2 were born as mods. And Portal came around due to tinkering with the Gravity Gun and the Havok engine. Dota 2 is one of my pipedream picks - in fact, the pipedream pick - and I would not mind the other Valve franchises. At all. They're also in that bolded territory.
Predictions: PoP (Prince of Persia) 5,1 %
Nominations: Thrall x5
