It seems you're also looking at it with the lens of someone who foolishly thinks devs have infinite time and infinite resources.
If Smash has yet to do 100 characters in over 25 years, do you really think a single game can add 111? Like, that's genuine insanity right there.
The big problem with the idea of Nintendo owning everything is that now, the pool of "first-party" options is much bigger but the number of fighter slots is the same so if anything, it causes some characters to become less likely, if not impossible.
If Nintendo owns everything, nothing gets in.
To play the devil's advocate, if this hypothetical Japanese Games was a thing, they could probably pool together enough resources to make it happen. Kinda like Activision pooling everything into their yearly Call of Duty games.
To stop playing the devil's advocate, the modern Calladooty dev cycle just plain sucks and I'd much rather dev teams have room to actually work on new games instead of just being yet another cog in the Ultra Moneymaker machine
OK, let's put aside the moral element, as you are doing, and speak practically on Smash: Japanese Games would theoretically have a shared budget pool, mostly shared marketing team, a lot of studio overlap/mergers/micromanaging - and most importantly, there would be an expectation that Japanese Games could put the same amount of budget into individual games and release them at the same proximity as if you were to imagine their pre-merger business as a single entity.
What this means is:
- All games have to be lower-budget and more rushed to statisfy the limited time that a smaller group of executives has; the more wide-spread budget pool; and the expectation of a preserved game frequency, cancelling out the 200-character dream
- Most retro cult-classic franchise revivals have been from aftermarket companies that literally don't own anything else - Metroid already struggles when the Mario machine is there, but under Japanese Games - competiting with Final Fantasy; Dragon Quest; Ressie... it is never seeing the light of day again, and that could just as well apply to Metroid content in Smash too. This is also an issue for Konami and Capcom IPs as a whole, they are niche brands while Square-Enix and Nintendo are mainstream.
- Smash's
wrongly celebrated marketing cannot exist, and could by all means outright kill Smash's future, because it has such a reputation for overshadowing Nintendo's other products in marketing. Beyond Nintendo slowing down announcements to adjust for Smash, basically the entire Japanese gaming industry would hinge on Smash and the result that would be the best for everyone - even AT Japanese Games - is for it to fail.
Shigesato Itoi was actually the literal first person Sakurai asked for permission in making Smash 64, he says it right here just before yapping a bunch of really dumb BS about source accuracy. (Justice for Dashing Super Guy, he didn't deserve to be dragged like this)
Nintendo of America’s Super Smash Bros. N64 commercial: it didn’t necessarily do a lot to dispel the notion that the game might be “cheap”, but it certainly made an impression. —Yeah, and to be honest, I didn’t have a very good impression of the game at first either. I think the image most...
shmuplations.com
...Metroid, struggling? A decade ago you'd be dead-on, but Metroid Dread cracked 3 million copies, despite Metroid having been struggling to get a grip for the past ten years and being a sequel to the then-19-year-old Metroid Fusion. Metroid Prime Remaster then sold over a million copies, and now Metroid Prime 4 is finally approaching release after being announced like eight years ago. Yeah, it's not Mario-tier success, but if I remember correctly Metroid's average sales
doubled on the Switch. Unless the bar to success is absurdly high, I'd say Metroid is eating really good right now.
The article you linked is pretty interesting, though. Itoi being the first guy contacted lines up with my guess that Ness was planned earlier than the other unlockable characters. The idea of a "dog fighting game" is also pretty funny. i wonder if Sakurai looked back on that pitch while desiging the Duck Hunt team.
Politely disagree on the "dumb yapping BS" about source accuracy. I think it's an interesting insight into what goes on between developers and how they see their creations. Kirby was Sakurai's baby at the time, and he's totally justified in having guidelines on how he wants his creation handled. Extending that courtesy to his fellow developers is something I respect.
Changing the topic a little, we've discussed for a while about how TPC is very protective of Pokemon's image, despite how we take Pokemon's inclusion for granted. This seems to confirm it. It's strange to think there's a timeline where Pokemon just... Isn't in Smash, at least not for a while. Funny seeing the differing reactions between Tsunekazu Ishihara and Satoshi Tajiri, though.
