Official Smash Ultimate Discussion

[HyruleHero]

I am still TeamFake

Reasons
1) Sakurai said not to expected many characters.
2) Revealing so many at once? Unlikely.
3) If I have a real leak then why would I take such a blurry pic?
4) Some chars looks off.
5) i am still thinking Incineroar is in.

your reasoning isnt great.
1) Sakurai has said this before and we still got a good number of characters
2) if your trying to hype up a game revealing this many characters at the end is a good strategy
3) it wasn't a blurry picture the original just had the roster far away - 4chan zoomed in to get the blurry roster pic we see.
4) some characters look off?... really from far away with a blurry picture every character looks off.
5) thats not really a reason thats just baseless wishes.

Sorry if I got a bit aggressive I just think that it could be fake but your reasoning isn't why.

 

[MainJPW]

Toad would make a sick Echo Fighter of Mario TBH.

Yeah, that would be awe-

On second thought...

Yeah, Toad could play like Mario and Luigi with some proportion appropriate animation differences. They all run, jump, Spin Jump, stomp Goombas and similar stuff of that nature.

 

[hazza5557]

Can we change the poll to Team Real or Team Fake?

 

[SoccerStar9001]

If this leak is real, it would put Sakurai at a weird position for the next Smash direct. If you reveal only some of the leaked character but their mural art would confirm this leak is real. So he has three options:
A: Alter the art at the reveal so the leak can be "disproved"
B: Reveal everyone so this leak is no longer a problem.
C: Give up and let this leak confirm.

 

[nintenplayer]

Either it's fake, and we get surprised at the remaining characters, and Sakurai doesn't have his work leaked.
Or it's real, and we are given a base roster far better than what I could ask for, the greatest base roster I expect for any Smash game to ever have.
Either way, it's a good outcome.

But please, please be real!

That's actually a very good mindset to have for this leak! I should try to be more optimistic too...

 

[TVDart]

If this leak is real, it would put Sakurai at a weird position for the next Smash direct. If you reveal only some of the leaked character but their mural art would confirm this leak is real. So he has three options:
A: Alter the art at the reveal so the leak can be "disproved"
B: Reveal everyone so this leak is no longer a problem.
C: Give up and let this leak confirm.

Post ESRB Leak, Sakurai still revealed Shulk normally despite him confirming the entire leak. We were then forced to wait an entire month to see the rest of the characters get revealed.

 

[KingBroly]

If this leak is real, it would put Sakurai at a weird position for the next Smash direct. If you reveal only some of the leaked character but their mural art would confirm this leak is real. So he has three options:
A: Alter the art at the reveal so the leak can be "disproved"
B: Reveal everyone so this leak is no longer a problem.
C: Give up and let this leak confirm.

Well the plan was to reveal everyone before the game came out, so...they don't really have to do anything special. They're not going to hijack their own marketing cycle because some idiot ruined their plans. The problem with stuff like this is that it does ruin said plans, hurts hype and might have a potential impact on sales (That's what they'll tell you).

 

[Penroze]

Can we change the poll to Team Real or Team Fake?

Yes, please stop displaying Isabelle as the least hyped non-clone.

 

[Tree Gelbman]

If this leak is real, it would put Sakurai at a weird position for the next Smash direct. If you reveal only some of the leaked character but their mural art would confirm this leak is real. So he has three options:
A: Alter the art at the reveal so the leak can be "disproved"
B: Reveal everyone so this leak is no longer a problem.
C: Give up and let this leak confirm.

Or option D:

Fight The Grinch to a dual at dawn in the center of Nintendo Headquarters in Kyoto.

 

[Ring-a-Sheep]

Can we change the poll to Team Real, Team Fake and Team Arizona Green Tea?

I second this

 

[Das Koopa]

hypothetical to explain it being fake (not saying this is true, but it's a decent explanation)

Some dude is a graphic designer working for Bamcai. He decides one day he's going to use his skills to fake the mural, and maybe use an office material or two to replicate the concept. How difficult is this? Well, he'd know what would look "professional" by virtue of his career as a designer, so it'd just take a trip to the store. Paper, scissors, etc. You can get the materials he has on his desk at Walmart.

Next, he fakes a mural by taking materials from the existing murals to create a background and then he fills in the rest by himself, apparently unaware that a current image exists. In fairness, it took a dedicated group of internet sleuths spanning 4chan/GameFAQs/Reddit/ResetERA/Smashboards MANY MANY HOURS to find this - meaning it is entirely possible he missed it.

Because of the blurry quality of what he's taken, any potential render thievery or flaws in the renders he has designed are fairly well concealed. He highballs because he's confident people will start talking about this.

Then, once he's done making a makeshift desk, he makes himself appear as a disgruntled worker, snapchats, takes screens, and puts them online.

At this point, we hit two scenarios:

1: He genuinely believed his name was covered. It takes photo editing software to even fully see it, in fairness, meaning he likely couldn't see it from a glance. I can only see "ard" without photo editing software.

In the fallout of this, he is unwittingly exposed. Press F.

2: He knew his name would get out there and wanted that to add legitimacy to the leak. This, of course, is a 0 IQ move because he's fired if this is true because no reasonable company wouldn't consider him a risk to continue employ.

I don't believe it's that hard to fake this. It certainly takes a lot of effort, but it's not some Herculean attempt to use skills you already have to feign being in a workplace and use your skills to design a mural and reduce the quality to hide errors. What he didn't count on, in this case, is the background render already existing.

I consider that a big strike because rather than reaffirming an existing obscurity, as the ESRB Leak did MULTIPLE TIMES, this contradicts one.

 

[Aurane]

#TeamGrinch

 

[vaanrose]

First of all, understand these images are perspective corrected and this does introduce new artifacts.

That said, this is a much better comparison than the earlier one I posted.

Like Chiroz was saying, notice in quadrant 3, the three bright red waterfalls, which become only two bright red waterfalls in the leak. The color contrast is immense, and the two that are there are very clear even after all the color and detail loss. But the third is completely missing.

On the left, right where the first vertical black line is, the waterfall just ends and the castle structure that should be there isn't. This isn't a smudge changing the shape of a cloud, it's an entire element of the stage that's not there at all.

 

[Fane]

I've said this before, but I am definitely team real.

Not particularly hyped for any characters shown.(except for Shadow) Though I definitely understand the impact their inclusions would have on the community and the reactions that Nintendo and Sakurai would receive from their announcements is exciting and remarkable, honestly.

Regardless, I got one of the characters I wanted so far, and the rest of the roster is phenomenal. Fake or not, easily the best roster in gaming history.

I do hope everyone has this mindset. This leak has way more proving it to be legitimate than false, but there's always a chance it's illegitimate. Just keep an open mind everyone!

 

[Thirdkoopa]

Honestly I feel like Sakurai was ahead of the curve with s***posting. Because like... at least 15% of the Dojo posts for Brawl were s***posts. Same thing with Melee's Dojo probably.

At least for Smash 4 he could just Miiverse it all up (RIP IN PEACE MIIVERSE, WE MISS YOU!).

dude his miiverse posts didn't even compare to the **** posted on miiverse

 

[epicgordan]

Honestly imagine being an actual worker at a graphic design company with real ties to Smash Bros, and making a fake leak for the hell of it, only to lose your job to it.

Honestly imagining posting a real leak likes this when you have job security and get paid well only to get fired, blacklisted, and then sued seems pretty irrational as well.

The ESRB leak was posted by some unscrupulous people the Bandai Namco employee decided to show to his friends because he thought he could trust them. That too isn't rational, but at least it wasn't crazy. Over the last couple of years, I can definitely buy somebody crazy enough to fake a leak and jeopardize his job security.

Unless the purpose of the leak is to weed out any potential real leaks, and was in fact planted in on loan from Bandai Namco/Nintendo.

I think I'm done here for now. I'm tired, and I honestly am just repeating myself by this point.

 

[UberMadman]

First of all, understand these images are perspective corrected and this does introduce new artifacts.

That said, this is a much better comparison than the earlier one I posted.

Like Chiroz was saying, notice in quadrant 3, the three bright red waterfalls, which become only two bright red waterfalls in the leak. The color contrast is immense, and the two that are there are very clear even after all the color and detail loss. But the third is completely missing.

On the left, right where the first vertical black line is, the waterfall just ends and the castle structure that should be there isn't. This isn't a smudge changing the shape of a cloud, it's an entire element of the stage that's not there at all.

So are you personally starting to come to a conclusion on the veracity of this leak based on this information? I’m curious to hear your eventual opinion, though I understand why you would hesitate to give it right away.

 

[The_Naraotor]

Honestly imagining posting a real leak likes this when you have job security and get paid well only to get fired, blacklisted, and then sued seems pretty irrational as well.

You sir clearly don't know the extent of HUMAN STUPIDITY ! I've seen enough **** on memecenter and 9gag to know where human dumbness can go lol

 

[jwillenn]

Have we seen the battlefield version of Corneria in Ultimate before today?

I hadn't.

Also, that might have been Great Plateau Omega shown later on.

 

[FixedFun]

First of all, understand these images are perspective corrected and this does introduce new artifacts.

That said, this is a much better comparison than the earlier one I posted.

Like Chiroz was saying, notice in quadrant 3, the three bright red waterfalls, which become only two bright red waterfalls in the leak. The color contrast is immense, and the two that are there are very clear even after all the color and detail loss. But the third is completely missing.

On the left, right where the first vertical black line is, the waterfall just ends and the castle structure that should be there isn't. This isn't a smudge changing the shape of a cloud, it's an entire element of the stage that's not there at all.

I'd also like to remind people, Nintendo usually recycles everything, so changing the background seems very unlikely.
I'm now in #TeamFake
No way they're not using the same background in all the ads, promotions and videos.

 

[Deleted member]

So, here's something to consider:

And that's the very real possibility the Snapchat leak, and the Chadnondorf leak, are two different people confirming the exact same roster.

I'm not sure who it was, but there was a user on here who confirmed to use that the Snapchat video was real, and several of his friends saw it. I believe he also said it was "a few weeks ago." This time frame is important, but more on that in a bit. The fact that the Snapchat video was eyewitness testimony of existing, confirms that 100% Eric was the creator of that video, the same Eric that worked for a company contracted by Bamco, so we can confirm all of that is 100% true.

Meaning. If this leak is fake, Eric is the mastermind. However, it's unlikely Eric ever wanted to have his identity discovered as it puts his career at risk. Which is a huge obstacle for anyone wanting to prove this is fake to overcome.

There's more however, Eric wouldn't have access to information about the bosses, NOR what characters didn't make the cut. What the Chadnondorf leak provides. He's just a marketing guy that was outsourced after all.

Also, depending on WHEN the Snapchat leak was made, the likelihood that the person making that 4chan post is either Eric, or someone who saw Eric's post is incredibly slim if the Snapchat was made AFTER that post was made (also remember that Snapchats only stay up for a few hours). Thus, it's very likely that the Chadnondorf post was made by someone else who had insider info and is completely unrelated to Eric, and the two posts lining up, only line up because this is the actual roster. After all, if this is the real roster, multiple leaks cropping up with the exact same roster is only natural.

So there's two factors to this. It's unlikely the Chadnondorf leak was made due to the Snapchat leak, as:

1. the time frames don't line up (possibly)

2. it has insider info that neither Eric nor anyone who saw the Snapchat would have access to.

One final thing. Some people could assume that if this is fake, Eric could have made that post himself in preparation for his fake leak. However, ignoring the fact that in order to validate his leak he's risking his privacy AND livelihood; in order for the leak to be fake. Eric would have needed to have made all this content, and planned all this out with EXTREME accuracy, BEFORE Sept. 28, and sometime AFTER we got info that the trademarks for GS, Rhythm Heaven, and etc... all got renewed. Too tight a time frame in order to execute all this with such accurate precision and masterful social engineering. So, someone wanting to debunk this has to prove all that.

Regardless, point I'm trying to make is that it's incredibly likely that the Grinch leak, and the Chadnondorf leak are two separate isolated incidents done by two different people. And the fact that both their reveals line up perfectly only helps to validate both leaks, as, again, if that's the real roster, it's only natural that multiple leaks would come up with the same info.

 

[Fane]

A lot of the background is seemingly changed in the leak.

That's not unheard of in the Graphics Design business at all, and with the amount of inconsistencies it definitely makes me think it doesn't discredit it at all.

If it was almost the exact same as the current one without say... the third waterfall on the right, I'd be more likely to say it's faked. Why go through the effort of attempting to recreate the background when we have current images of it?

Looking at the leaked background vs. the current one, I can definitely say if we got appropriate lighting and... well... not a blurry pic, it'd look more dramatic in terms of contrasting colors and lighting than the current one, which is actually a smart design choice and makes it easier on the eyes and more interesting to look at.

Regardless, I don't believe the differences in the background 'kills' the leak. I don't believe anything will until we get more reveals... which is the frustrating part.

This is ALL that will be discussed with both sides butting heads endlessly until we get some news.

 

[Noipoi]

First of all, understand these images are perspective corrected and this does introduce new artifacts.

That said, this is a much better comparison than the earlier one I posted.

Like Chiroz was saying, notice in quadrant 3, the three bright red waterfalls, which become only two bright red waterfalls in the leak. The color contrast is immense, and the two that are there are very clear even after all the color and detail loss. But the third is completely missing.

On the left, right where the first vertical black line is, the waterfall just ends and the castle structure that should be there isn't. This isn't a smudge changing the shape of a cloud, it's an entire element of the stage that's not there at all.

I'm still not picking a side yet, but this is very interesting...

 

[alemerltoucanet]

Can we change the poll to Team Real or Team Fake?

And Team Neutral.

 

[Gentlepanda]

First of all, understand these images are perspective corrected and this does introduce new artifacts.

That said, this is a much better comparison than the earlier one I posted.

Like Chiroz was saying, notice in quadrant 3, the three bright red waterfalls, which become only two bright red waterfalls in the leak. The color contrast is immense, and the two that are there are very clear even after all the color and detail loss. But the third is completely missing.

On the left, right where the first vertical black line is, the waterfall just ends and the castle structure that should be there isn't. This isn't a smudge changing the shape of a cloud, it's an entire element of the stage that's not there at all.

Strange how quickly how one error in these sorts of leaks (or in this case, collective errors in a single aspect) can turn me from Team Real to Team Fake. It's extremely well done, but I don't buy it anymore.

 

[Deleted member]

I'd also like to remind people, Nintendo usually recycles everything, so changing the background seems very unlikely.
I'm now in #TeamFake
No way they're not using the same background in all the ads, promotions and videos.

The are the same image. Only reason there's some differences is due to:

- distortion due to the paper curving
- things blending cause potato cam and motion
- artifacting because it's a snapchat video
- exposure hiding things due to contrast

All of that combined is gonna make the image look slightly different in various areas. You're not looking at the authentic piece, you're looking at a version taken pics from from a video posted on Snapchat, of art that was printed on cardboard that's clearly curving. If anything, the fact that they look so similar despite all that only helps confirm the image is legit.

 

[vaanrose]

So are you personally starting to come to a conclusion on the veracity of this leak based on this information? I’m curious to hear your eventual opinion, though I understand why you would hesitate to give it right away.

I'd like to think most people have seen that I try to be impartial. Take the Sassy Geno leak, for example. When it resurfaced, I offered my opinion on why it could have been real, pointing out the new way shaders work in Ultimate and pointing out how I thought there wasn't a discrepancy between the new shaders and Geno's shading. I then followed it up shortly thereafter with a discussion on the ocean shader, and how I believed that shader was completely wrong, which, of course, it was.

It's the same thing I've done this time. Last night I was offering support for the leak, and today I'm offering evidence against it. If tomorrow I spot something that screams it's real, I'll be right back here offering my opinion on it.

I don't particularly care if it's real or not. I just enjoy the analysis.

 

[Tree Gelbman]

Still on Team Hmm, Indeed.

Yes. Team Hmm, Indeed.

I printed sweatshirts.

 

[Johnknight1]

So, here's something to consider:

View attachment 171866

And that's the very real possibility the Snapchat leak, and the Chadnondorf leak, are two different people confirming the exact same roster.

I'm not sure who it was, but there was a user on here who confirmed to use that the Snapchat video was real, and several of his friends saw it. I believe he also said it was "a few weeks ago." This time frame is important, but more on that in a bit. The fact that the Snapchat video was eyewitness testimony of existing, confirms that 100% Eric was the creator of that video, the same Eric that worked for a company contracted by Bamco, so we can confirm all of that is 100% true.

Meaning. If this leak is fake, Eric is the mastermind. However, it's unlikely Eric ever wanted to have his identity discovered as it puts his career at risk. Which is a huge obstacle for anyone wanting to prove this is fake to overcome.

There's more however, Eric wouldn't have access to information about the bosses, NOR what characters didn't make the cut. What the Chadnondorf leak provides. He's just a marketing guy that was outsourced after all.

Also, depending on WHEN the Snapchat leak was made, the likelihood that the person making that 4chan post is either Eric, or someone who saw Eric's post is incredibly slim if the Snapchat was made AFTER that post was made (also remember that Snapchats only stay up for a few hours). Thus, it's very likely that the Chadnondorf post was made by someone else who had insider info and is completely unrelated to Eric, and the two posts lining up, only line up because this is the actual roster. After all, if this is the real roster, multiple leaks cropping up with the exact same roster is only natural.

So there's two factors to this. It's unlikely the Chadnondorf leak was made due to the Snapchat leak, as:

1. the time frames don't line up (possibly)

2. it has insider info that neither Eric nor anyone who saw the Snapchat would have access to.

One final thing. Some people could assume that if this is fake, Eric could have made that post himself in preparation for his fake leak. However, ignoring the fact that in order to validate his leak he's risking his privacy AND livelihood; in order for the leak to be fake. Eric would have needed to have made all this content, and planned all this out with EXTREME accuracy, BEFORE Sept. 28, and sometime AFTER we got info that the trademarks for GS, Rhythm Heaven, and etc... all got renewed. Too tight a time frame in order to execute all this with such accurate precision and masterful social engineering. So, someone wanting to debunk this has to prove all that.

Regardless, point I'm trying to make is that it's incredibly likely that the Grinch leak, and the Chadnondorf leak are two separate isolated incidents done by two different people. And the fact that both their reveals line up perfectly only helps to validate both leaks, as, again, if that's the real roster, it's only natural that multiple leaks would come up with the same info.

Why I am leaning real > fake on a similar (but much smaller scale; basically a tl;dr)... Chadnondorf's leak being the SAME EXACT CHARACTERS (on top of people with history of being truthful backing this) a month beforehand.

This is way too next level to just a be a coincidence unless we are getting 4D Chess'd. Which if we are, not even mad, just impressed. That's a lot of work for one fake.

That just sounds like too much work to do, especially since a lot of people are backing this.

 

[DNeon]

I've posted around the place but I'll add it here:

I really don't think changes in the background are enough to discredit this. In the 6 months or something since that image came from (I'm told it's from E3), it's entirely possible the graphic design team looked at it and thought some elements cluttered/clashed with the silhouettes/posing of fighters and they changed those elements, especially as positions were shuffled around.

Furthermore I can't see the justification for this level of risk if it isn't real. By framing yourself as a worker for a company to legitimize the leak (whether you are an employee using the resources for the fake or just an asshole framing a random person) you're still in jeopardy of retribution from that company/person. It's not just the effort that makes me consider this real, it's the personal risk ascociated.

 

[Iko MattOrr]

I should note that while I am team fake, the lack of the fortress is very interesting. I feel like the Gif MORE OR LESS demonstrates it's absent and not simply hidden away by poor quality, but that fortress is quite visible in the actual official mural, and assuming this person erased characters and did a shop job, I have no real idea how he would've missed it.

I look at it like this: certain structural changes are a red flag if they are absent from the mural but were absent on the E3 blank, but it's odd for things to be on the mural that he would've had to take from to fake it yet he cut them out anyway.

That's one reason I haven't totally written this off yet. It could legitimately be some arbitrary last-minute change, I just don't really know WHY they'd do it, which is why I'm leaning fake.

To be honest, there's a huge black thing where the ruins should be, so I think that the ruins are there, but they have been deformed. The same happend with a couple of clouds on the left of the picture, they are the same as in the official picture except that they have been deformed to be longer and curved. Those clouds don't look very good so I doubt it was an artistic choice, there must be a different, more functional reason behind this.

Anyway, a lot of inconsestencies are just a matter of contrast. The picture uses an odd contrast that makes dark areas completely black, normal areas dark, and light areas visible, showing forms that normally you would see as a white blob. Some shapes hidden by dark areas and some other shapes revealed by the contrast in the light areas, make the overall picture look more different than what it actually is.

This plays in favor of the leak, but still doesn't prove it, because the battlefield template was in that E3 video, and the leaker may have used that.
But since we can't use the background as a proof to debunk it anymore, we lack of a solid proof to disprove it.
Technically, the background can still debunk it, because it's deformed, though it's not strong evidence anymore and there is still a tiny chance that it could be real.

The leak lacks of proofs of it being real too, most of them have been considerably weakened or simply disproven (the Grinch thing), the only thing remaining is the backstory of the leak, that's still very questionable as a proof.

In short, while I still think this is fake, the recent findings made me also consider the possibility of it being true (still very unlikely IMO), so I'm now in the same situation as always, wait for a direct with no news and no confirmations.

 

[FixedFun]

The are the same image. Only reason there's some differences is due to:

- distortion due to the paper curving
- things blending cause potato cam and motion
- artifacting because it's a snapchat video
- exposure hiding things due to contrast

All of that combined is gonna make the image look slightly different in various areas. You're not looking at the authentic piece, you're looking at a version taken pics from from a video posted on Snapchat, of art that was printed on cardboard that's clearly curving. If anything, the fact that they look so similar despite all that only helps confirm the image is legit.

Why can't leakers for once buy an iPhone or a Sony camera, it'd make everything easier

 

[Chiroz]

The are the same image. Only reason there's some differences is due to:

- distortion due to the paper curving
- things blending cause potato cam and motion
- artifacting because it's a snapchat video
- exposure hiding things due to contrast

All of that combined is gonna make the image look slightly different in various areas. You're not looking at the authentic piece, you're looking at a version taken pics from from a video posted on Snapchat, of art that was printed on cardboard that's clearly curving. If anything, the fact that they look so similar despite all that only helps confirm the image is legit.

It's none of the above. Objects that would be very visible are missing. Literal sections of the stage are cut. Certain objects are deformed in an extensive manner (as in more than half of the object is missing).

A lot of the background is seemingly changed in the leak.

That's not unheard of in the Graphics Design business at all, and with the amount of inconsistencies it definitely makes me think it doesn't discredit it at all.

If it was almost the exact same as the current one without say... the third waterfall on the right, I'd be more likely to say it's faked. Why go through the effort of attempting to recreate the background when we have current images of it?

Looking at the leaked background vs. the current one, I can definitely say if we got appropriate lighting and... well... not a blurry pic, it'd look more dramatic in terms of contrasting colors and lighting than the current one, which is actually a smart design choice and makes it easier on the eyes and more interesting to look at.

Regardless, I don't believe the differences in the background 'kills' the leak. I don't believe anything will until we get more reveals... which is the frustrating part.

This is ALL that will be discussed with both sides butting heads endlessly until we get some news.

What's curious is that every single one of these inconsistencies is exactly where there are characters that hide that section.

So if I, who has not one ounce of photoshop or artistic skill, were to cut all the characters from the official mural and then fill in the blank with my own drawings, I would end up with the exact same places being "identical to the official artwork" as the leak and the exact same places being "inconsistent" as the leak.

I wasn't skeptical until I saw this specific pattern arise.

 

[MasterOfKnees]

The background changes are quite striking, especially the whole castle part just being straight up missing. There are so many elements to this leak, I don't blame anyone for going either team real or team fake, because I feel like there's logic behind both.

What I do know is that we'll get the biggest meltdown yet if this turns out to be fake, I'd hate to be Incineroar if our assumptions from before this leak turn out to be the real deal.

 

[UberMadman]

The way I see it, assuming the leak ISN'T real, either the Chad Ganondorf leaker and the person who photoshopped this up are the same person, (which isn't too much of a stretch considering both leaks have "**** Nintendo" included in them, and the person might just be bilingual,) or the image leak was directly based off of the text leak. Both of those two leaks having these specific 7 characters and only these specific characters shared between them is unlikely to be random chance. Either they're both legitimate, or it's a coordinated fake.

 

[Nap_]

It seems the hammer item now makes the same sound effect it does when you hit something with it in the Donkey Kong arcade game. Also when to hit an opponent a blue visual effect appears similarly to the arcade game. View attachment 171857

Where this pic and the Corneria Battlefield comes from? I can't find the video.

 

[The_Intruder]

I'd also like to remind people, Nintendo usually recycles everything, so changing the background seems very unlikely.
I'm now in #TeamFake
No way they're not using the same background in all the ads, promotions and videos.

Even though it was the case why removing something that looks like ruins and replacing it with just water? Even the shape of the waterfall is completely different in this place than the original picture. It's like a big element of the background is gone because he doesn't known what was behind these characters.

 

[UberMadman]

Where this pic and the Corneria Battlefield comes from? I can't find the video.

Here you go:

 

[Fane]

What's curious is that every single one of these inconsistencies is exactly where there are characters that hide that section.

So if I, who has not one ounce of photoshop or artistic skill, were to cut all the characters from the official mural and then fill in the blank with my own drawings, I would end up with the exact same places being "identical to the official artwork" as the leak and the exact same places being "inconsistent" as the leak.

I wasn't skeptical until I saw this specific pattern arise.

There's also a lot of areas that are covered up by characters that without distortion/blurriness are spot-on accurate.

 

[vaanrose]

In the 6 months or something since that image came from (I'm told it's from E3), it's entirely possible the graphic design team looked at it and thought some elements cluttered/clashed with the silhouettes/posing of fighters and they changed those elements.
.

The blank background is from E3, however, all the visible parts still perfectly align with the current banner on the website. I went looking for anything that was different from the current banner compared to the E3 one for evidence it was a living design, but I didn't find anything.