[SPOILER ALERT] - The Sevens Squares. - A Square-Enix general support threads.

[ZelDan]

The possibility that Nintendo ****ed up is not proof that Nintendo has ****ed up now. Don't make me remind you all about the Grinch leak and Best Buy leak.

When did I ever say that Nintendo definitely 100% **** ed up? I'm just agreeing with CJbrine that Nintendo screwing the poochie isn't completely out of the question.

 

[Captain Fun]

Nintendo has slipped up before.

*cough* *cough* Box theory *cough* *cough*

Sure, and they could slip up again. Maybe this is their slip-up. Having said that, I think the ambiguous space left on the collectors box is a different kind of slip-up than accidentally wasting money advertising nonexistent pages for terms like “Artorias Smash bros Ultimate” or whatever.

 

[Deleted member]

When did I ever say that Nintendo definitely 100% **** ed up? I'm just agreeing with CJbrine that Nintendo screwing the poochie isn't completely out of the question.

And my response was to tell you both that possibility meant nothing to the current conversation.

 

[AugustusB]

Hey gang, I have been playing FF XIV for a while.

What did I mi- *Chaos ensues*

Ohhh...the same old, same old?

Though I have been watching all this (Google Theory) in the background...I am not sure what to think. HOWEVER, I have been mulling over a scenario...

What if negotiations for a 2nd Rep fell through, BUT the higher ups never told their employees about it.

It could explain why news of a Square Rep was being heard back in 2018 May (?).

WHAT IF the leak that "rusled the feathers" of Square was the negotiations falling through and was later just that.

Ohh sorry *Tinfoil hat on, then takes it off*

I like throwing hypothetical scenarios. I don't care what happens, just interested in the chaos :D

 

[Deleted member]

Let's calm down for a min here, I feel that the main issue here is that we're fairly ignorant of a lot of stuff relating to ads on google and taking words or info for granted.

Let's see how it goes and see how Ryce replies to Polar's claims. I feel that there's a reason why no one from places like Gamexplain or other insiders have touched the theory.

 

[Teeb147]

Well regarding polar, here is what an user posted regarding it

https://www.resetera.com/threads/su...ers-approaching.114127/page-111#post-20824034

That's partially true. Amazon does have some rules up against things... but other stuff they did is just to make it hard to make ads for stuff on their site, because they already have an affiliate program, so they dont want certain ads linking to products and take away some of their possible earnings, and uhmm.. it's complicated lol, Also, you wont get the data you'd want from the ad if you link it to amazon. But google wont necessarily stop you. At least that was true before.

anyway I do think that panda didn't get enough for her to make such a strong claim that it would automatically be impossible to even make the ad.

 

[Blade of Evil's Bane]

Just dropping by to share some of the results from this poll conducted by Source Gaming about the most wanted DLC characters. You can check the video for more info but basically, it had around 3000 participants and each of them had 3 votes (1st vote=3pts, 2nd vote=2pts, 3rd vote=1pt). Banjo & Kazooie won the 1st place with 1577pts and here's how our fabled 'SE seven' ranked (out of 718 characters in total):

3. Sora (794 pts)
5. Geno (586 pts)
34. Erdrick (98 pts)
40. Crono (88 pts)
96. Sephiroth (N/A)
112. Luminary (N/A)
240. Slime (N/A)

Here's some other notable SE characters i've spotted:

18. 2B
26. Lara Croft
31. Neku
115. Noctis
133. Tifa
143. Terra
146. DQ Hero
160. Lightning
199. Black Mage
216. Zack Fair
243. Agnès
259. Jade
255. Edea Lee
288. 9S
393. Yuna
436. Eight
442. Five
578. Ringabel
636. Mallow
683. Sazh

I've probably missed some of them so feel free to double check if you're interested.

Notes: There's some 'meme picks' and/or non-video game characters among the 718 (even one in the top 50, Goku). 3000 is a fairly good size for a sample, on the other hand, the pool from which the sample came from is probably 'within the Smash bubble' as some would say (i.e. people already interested in smash speculation) so it's safe to assume there's multiple biases affecting the results (as it is the case for most fan polls).

Anyway, not a perfect poll obviously but i thought it would be nice to take a peek at people's opinions outside of Smashboards.

 

[ZelDan]

And my response was to tell you both that possibility meant nothing to the current conversation.

Wasn't the discussion a couple of posts about CJ's about the google theory? Sounds like what CJ was talking about and what I was responding to would be kinda relevant because if the Google theory is true, that would be a slip up on their part.

IF it was even true of course, which tbh I really don't think it is, and on top of that I don't even want it to be true because I don't care about any character associated with it.

 

[A.G.L.]

I see we’re all discussing the google theory. It’s definitely an interesting case, but there’s a really big oddity in it. Why would Namco choose such a random character instead of their more well known characters like Heihachi, Lloyd Irving, Kos-Mos, Nightmare even Solaire. I just don’t see it, it’s like if Capcom chose Wesker from Resident Evil as their next rep, it’s just too out there.

While the characters on this list would be really interesting especially Ryu Hayabusa I just feel we might be reading too much into it. There’s some sort of piece to this puzzle that we aren’t seeing and most likely it’s due to a weird google algorithm. Like with leaks let’s be careful on how much we’re reading into this.

 

[GoodGrief741]

I see we’re all discussing the google theory. It’s definitely an interesting case, but there’s a really big oddity in it. Why would Namco choose such a random character instead of their more well known characters like Heihachi, Lloyd Irving, Kos-Mos, Nightmare even Solaire. I just don’t see it, it’s like if Capcom chose Wesker from Resident Evil as their next rep, it’s just too out there.

While the characters on this list would be really interesting especially Ryu Hayabusa I just feel we might be reading too much into it. There’s some sort of piece to this puzzle that we aren’t seeing and most likely it’s due to a weird google algorithm. Like with leaks let’s be careful on how much we’re reading into this.

Yeah, besides the fact that it's shakey as hell, Artorias being there just automatically brings it down to fake for me. It's like Gene from God Hand suddenly showing up on a leak, you can't really expect me to buy such a random character.

 

[Idon]

Yeah, besides the fact that it's shakey as hell, Artorias being there just automatically brings it down to fake for me. It's like Gene from God Hand suddenly showing up on a leak, you can't really expect me to buy such a random character.

DUDE, I'D BUY IT, GOD HAND IS ****ING AWESOME.

 

[GoodGrief741]

DUDE, I'D BUY IT, GOD HAND IS ****ING AWESOME.

I know right? That's just the example that popped into my head for whatever reason.

 

[Icewolff92]

Hey gang, I have been playing FF XIV for a while.

What did I mi- *Chaos ensues*

Ohhh...the same old, same old?

Though I have been watching all this (Google Theory) in the background...I am not sure what to think. HOWEVER, I have been mulling over a scenario...

What if negotiations for a 2nd Rep fell through, BUT the higher ups never told their employees about it.

It could explain why news of a Square Rep was being heard back in 2018 May (?).

WHAT IF the leak that "rusled the feathers" of Square was the negotiations falling through and was later just that.

Ohh sorry *Tinfoil hat on, then takes it off*

I like throwing hypothetical scenarios. I don't care what happens, just interested in the chaos :D

Honestly, at this point, I would not be surprised if the supposed rustle the feathers thing is about a failed negotiation no matter if the Google theory is right or not.

Yeah, besides the fact that it's shakey as hell, Artorias being there just automatically brings it down to fake for me. It's like Gene from God Hand suddenly showing up on a leak, you can't really expect me to buy such a random character.

As someone that has not played Dark Souls, would you mind ask why Artorias is such a dealbreaker? Just curious

I see we’re all discussing the google theory. It’s definitely an interesting case, but there’s a really big oddity in it. Why would Namco choose such a random character instead of their more well known characters like Heihachi, Lloyd Irving, Kos-Mos, Nightmare even Solaire. I just don’t see it, it’s like if Capcom chose Wesker from Resident Evil as their next rep, it’s just too out there.

While the characters on this list would be really interesting especially Ryu Hayabusa I just feel we might be reading too much into it. There’s some sort of piece to this puzzle that we aren’t seeing and most likely it’s due to a weird google algorithm. Like with leaks let’s be careful on how much we’re reading into this.

Sorry..Just saw something interesting that Polar said on twitter about the Google Theory so I thought maybe it could be something worth posting for the sake of keeping this thread alive xD

 

[AugustusB]

I see we’re all discussing the google theory. It’s definitely an interesting case, but there’s a really big oddity in it. Why would Namco choose such a random character instead of their more well known characters like Heihachi, Lloyd Irving, Kos-Mos, Nightmare even Solaire. I just don’t see it, it’s like if Capcom chose Wesker from Resident Evil as their next rep, it’s just too out there.

While the characters on this list would be really interesting especially Ryu Hayabusa I just feel we might be reading too much into it. There’s some sort of piece to this puzzle that we aren’t seeing and most likely it’s due to a weird google algorithm. Like with leaks let’s be careful on how much we’re reading into this.

I agree, it is a bit odd at first, but giving it some thought...it is kind of ingenious (IF TRUE).

When you hear Dark Souls what do you think of? Tough. Challenging. THE BOSSES. I don't know about y'all, but the avatars/chosen undead is something I don't think about immediately right off the bat. I think how tough Smough and Ornstein were the first time! How do I beat this boss that I keep dying to!?!?

IF Dark Souls gets a Rep, I could see a boss being playable.

NOW we have to remember, Nintendo was in charge of the DLC this time, with the help of Sakurai's blessing.

Anyways, Square is cool! How about that Final Fantasy 7 Remake!? (Honestly, I loved it and watch the trailer once/ twice a day to contain hype)

 

[Namasura]

I was gonna ask around to see how I can test the google theory, since I tried everything but once got the ad once while pretending to be european, maybe see if other keywords work, especially the many different ways you can refer to Erdrick/Roto/Loto/Hero/so on...

But then I got myself thinking... what is with the SEO here? Why is it so sensitive? Would it make sense for Nintendo to really do that? To make ultrasensitive keywords that breaks the moment you use a different combination? I work in the area, and if I was making an ad, the usual would be to keyword everything, Banjo, Kazooie, Banjo-Kazooie, even wrong spellings like Kazoie are something you can add to the ad to make sure it hits. Yet here apparently merely not using the proper word placement or using bros vs brothers can break the ad...

 

[Gentlepanda]

I was gonna ask around to see how I can test the google theory, since I tried everything but once got the ad once while pretending to be european, maybe see if other keywords work, especially the many different ways you can refer to Erdrick/Roto/Loto/Hero/so on...

But then I got myself thinking... what is with the SEO here? Why is it so sensitive? Would it make sense for Nintendo to really do that? To make ultrasensitive keywords that breaks the moment you use a different combination? I work in the area, and if I was making an ad, the usual would be to keyword everything, Banjo, Kazooie, Banjo-Kazooie, even wrong spellings like Kazoie are something you can add to the ad to make sure it hits. Yet here apparently merely not using the proper word placement or using bros vs brothers can break the ad...

short answer: it ain't real

long answer: google adsense allows you to put ads on multiple words/phrases contained within speech marks, so it's a single google ad linked to joker's SmashBros/FightersPass.com URL that responds to the following key phrases:

• "smash bros ultimate <character name>"
• "super smash bros ultimate <character name>"

coincidentally, it being linked to the same URL as joker is what allows language differences/the nintendo UK star rating to appear - it's pulling the exact same metadata from joker's ad because it's linking to the exact same FightersPass page (itself a redirect).

if it was real like joker's ad, however, you'd be able to find the ads in any order of "super", "smash", "bros", "ultimate", and the character names, whereas the fake ads only respond to those exact phrases. it's much cheaper to run an ad with long, obscure phrases than it is to try and steal the keywords nintendo themselves are using.

 

[-Coco-]

short answer: it ain't real

long answer: google adsense allows you to put ads on multiple words/phrases contained within speech marks, so it's a single google ad linked to joker's SmashBros/FightersPass.com URL that responds to the following key phrases:

• "smash bros ultimate <character name>"
• "super smash bros ultimate <character name>"

coincidentally, it being linked to the same URL as joker is what allows language differences/the nintendo UK star rating to appear - it's pulling the exact same metadata from joker's ad because it's linking to the exact same FightersPass page (itself a redirect).

if it was real like joker's ad, however, you'd be able to find the ads in any order of "super", "smash", "bros", "ultimate", and the character names, whereas the fake ads only respond to those exact phrases. it's much cheaper to run an ad with long, obscure phrases than it is to try and steal the keywords nintendo themselves are using.

Where were you last night when everyone was trying to debunk this? Lol

 

[Gentlepanda]

Where were you last night when everyone was trying to debunk this? Lol

i was assuming we'd already put it to bed two days ago

 

[-Coco-]

i was assuming we'd already put it to bed two days ago

So I'm guessing this also explains the negative keywords?

 

[Gentlepanda]

So I'm guessing this also explains the negative keywords?

negative keywords?

 

[GoodGrief741]

As someone that has not played Dark Souls, would you mind ask why Artorias is such a dealbreaker? Just curious

Artorias is just a boss in Dark Souls, not a PC. And not like a recurring boss, he's exclusive to a DLC. Add to that the fact that he is in no way iconic to be taken as the mascot of the series, I just find no reason why he would be playable in Smash.

 

[-Coco-]

negative keywords?

The 5 characters that initially brought up the ad. no longer do so minus Joker. I'm assuming your theory covers that as well.

 

[Gentlepanda]

The 5 characters that initially brought up the ad. no longer do so minus Joker. I'm assuming your theory covers that as well.

that's likely because the ad has expired or been taken down by the guy behind it, probably because people have mostly moved on

 

[Teeb147]

short answer: it ain't real

long answer: google adsense allows you to put ads on multiple words/phrases contained within speech marks, so it's a single google ad linked to joker's SmashBros/FightersPass.com URL that responds to the following key phrases:

• "smash bros ultimate <character name>"
• "super smash bros ultimate <character name>"

coincidentally, it being linked to the same URL as joker is what allows language differences/the nintendo UK star rating to appear - it's pulling the exact same metadata from joker's ad because it's linking to the exact same FightersPass page (itself a redirect).

if it was real like joker's ad, however, you'd be able to find the ads in any order of "super", "smash", "bros", "ultimate", and the character names, whereas the fake ads only respond to those exact phrases. it's much cheaper to run an ad with long, obscure phrases than it is to try and steal the keywords nintendo themselves are using.

I don't understand what you mean. There's a different ad per region with a different url.

Or are you specifically talking only about the 'fake' ad?

 

[Gentlepanda]

I don't understand what you mean. There's a different ad per region with a different url.

i'll have to confirm when i get home, since i do remember the nintendo sites in question being their regional equivalents, but even then it's only a matter of setting up one ad listing per region involved

 

[Teeb147]

i'll have to confirm when i get home, since i do remember the nintendo sites in question being their regional equivalents, but even then it's only a matter of setting up one ad listing per region involved

I think I may be getting what you were saying when I re-read your post.

Tell me if I'm wrong, but you're talking about just the hypothetical fake ad right?
That someone would've made an ad in europe and included the different regions it shows up for, programmed to get the right data to match the region's actual ad (nintendo's) to fake it and redirect to the fighter's pass. And that ad is more specific with the keywords, to have the exact phrasing that was used to get it to work with the 4 characters. (and not conflict with broad stuff that could get nintendo's actual one)

Here's something I'm wondering about. Is someone in europe right now and able to get a screenshot of the actual dlc ad please? I'd like to see the url that shows up on it. Use broad terms like 'smash bros dlc'. That's what I used over here and it works to get it.

Edit: Ok I used a vpn and managed to get it. I think I understand the case with the links now and why the redirects work. I can talk a bit about it later, but it doesn't change much.

 

[Gentlepanda]

I think I may be getting what you were saying when I re-read your post.

Tell me if I'm wrong, but you're talking about just the hypothetical fake ad right?
That someone would've made an ad in europe and included the different regions it shows up for, programmed to get the right data to match the region's actual ad (nintendo's) to fake it and redirect to the fighter's pass. And that ad is more specific with the keywords, to have the exact phrasing that was used to get it to work with the 4 characters. (and not conflict with broad stuff that could get nintendo's actual one)

Here's something I'm wondering about. Is someone in europe right now and able to get a screenshot of the actual dlc ad please? I'd like to see the url that shows up on it. Use broad terms like 'smash bros dlc'. That's what I used over here and it works to get it.

right, i'm talking about the fake ones--they use very specific phrases rather than nintendo's more broad general words, because that way they aren't forced to bid for the terms with the real nintendo (hence why they're so obscure and difficult to find, and moreover why it seems almost impossible that someone just 'stumbled upon them').

the real joker ad (found through 'smash bros dlc', as you did) is this:

my point, notwithstanding the language, is that any ad set up to this address, regardless of source or creator, will bring up this exact metadata - the 'joker from persona 5 has arrived', 'joker approaches', etc. stuff along with the bottom buttons like 'online store', 'events info', etc.

all the 'leaker' needs to do is plug that URL into an ad (with the title copied and pasted from nintendo's real one), and that description fills out automatically because that's the info assigned to that URL. having checked on other languages, the URL is slightly different per location (i.e. it isn't co.uk, but rather the regional equivalent), but the process is the same - just recreate the ad exactly the same but paste in nintendo's officially-translated title and the regional URL and the description will carry over with its real translation.

if we assume he's used google adsense's budget limit to take them down, it wouldn't even cost him that much to run several regional variants at once. once the ad gets enough clicks from people investigating the leak (say, $10 worth of clicks per ad), google pulls it down automatically--no huge cost incurred.



edit: just to bring in an example, an ad made with this URL

will result in the ad having this description

 

[TheCJBrine]

I'm starting to not care about this Google stuff, as I just want B-K anyway, but didn't the link redirect to a blank page on the NoE site?

That may just be restricted to the Netherlands site link, though, if there's others.

 

[Gentlepanda]

I'm starting to not care about this Google stuff, as I just want B-K anyway, but didn't the link redirect to a blank page on the NoE site?

That may just be restricted to the Netherlands site link, though.

the link on the real ad, as i've just tested now, goes to your European regional equivalent of this. to my knowledge, the fake ads led to a 404 because they tried to actually lead you to the non-existent www.nintendo.co.uk/SmashBros/FightersPass‎ (which in reality is just a URL designed for the ad's info by nintendo, not an actual page--the real nintendo one redirects you to the smash page on their site.)

 

[TheCJBrine]

the link on the real ad, as i've just tested now, goes to your European regional equivalent of this. to my knowledge, the fake ads led to a 404 because they tried to actually lead you to the non-existent www.nintendo.co.uk/SmashBros/FightersPass‎ (which in reality is just a URL designed for the ad's info by nintendo, not an actual page--the real nintendo one redirects you to the smash page on their site.)

Alright.

I'm gonna stop considering this "theory", then, though it would've been nice to see some silly art with Google and Smash.

 

[Teeb147]

Alright, so after going through this, I still don't think it's a fake ad (though it could be possible). I think it's actually just the google algorithm, like I've talked about before.

I think that Gentlepanda found a pretty good way that a troller-faker could've put in a fake ad that redirects to nintendo, but there's a couple possible problems with that too. It entirely depends at which point google would shut down ads that infringe on the policies. If Nintendo doesn't allow people to link with their domain at all, then even a redirect would get detected at some point or other by google and get shut down.

After Ryce's comments, I thought maybe the url was bad or it had a bad redirect and could show that it's fake, but after looking the urls myself, I can see that the ad uses nintendo's proper domain without the sub-domain format that the western one uses, and even if the url on the ad isn't working, it directs to europe's fighter pass page and it's on the nintendo domain, which means that it's not necessarily a fake ad, since it could alll check out. The only case it could be one is if google took a while to catch it.

Now here's where it gets interesting. The specific ads with the characters not working anymore. There's actually a lot of possibilities for this. I'm going to talk about the ones going against the ad. If it's fake, it could be one of two things; google took it down for infringing on the policies (which it would have if it was fake), and the other yes could simply be that the budget ran out, and that would work if people were still able to get the ad to work with the characters after the 'black out'.
Was it a black out or has anyone gotten it to work at all? I just tried with a vpn and i cant get it to work at all.


Personally, I think it's actually having to do with the algorithm, and that it isn't a fake ad. If you watch papageno's video, they were able to get the ad to come up with other words that one way or another tied to 'dlc'. Not all, but some, which goes in favor that it's complicated and not just everything tied to dlc brought it up.

I saved the video at 13:20 to see what I'm talking about. He shows some of the words they tried.

Not only is it a couple of dlc from other games, but the dark souls dlc is actually called Artorias of the Abyss, which would explain why it came up for artorias.
Showing that it most likely has to do with the algorithm, nothing more.


The west didn't get anything around these characters, so that tells me that maybe europe's department didn't use their google ads tools correctly compared to other places, among other possibilities.
I think it's also possible that they refined it after they saw that they were getting hits in ways that they shouldn't, which is something that can happen (and can waste money), and it's normal to refine it, including adding negative keywords to stop getting those hits.

And that's my take on it

 

[Gentlepanda]

Alright, so after going through this, I still don't think it's a fake ad (though it could be possible). I think it's actually just the google algorithm, like I've talked about before.

I think that Gentlepanda found a pretty good way that a troller-faker could've put in a fake ad that redirects to nintendo, but there's a couple possible problems with that too. It entirely depends at which point google would shut down ads that infringe on the policies. If Nintendo doesn't allow people to link with their domain at all, then even a redirect would get detected at some point or other by google and get shut down.

After Ryce's comments, I thought maybe the url was bad or it had a bad redirect and could show that it's fake, but after looking the urls myself, I can see that the ad uses nintendo's proper domain without the sub-domain format that the western one uses, and even if the url on the ad isn't working, it directs to europe's fighter pass page and it's on the nintendo domain, which means that it's not necessarily a fake ad, since it could alll check out. The only case it could be one is if google took a while to catch it.

Now here's where it gets interesting. The specific ads with the characters not working anymore. There's actually a lot of possibilities for this. I'm going to talk about the ones going against the ad. If it's fake, it could be one of two things; google took it down for infringing on the policies (which it would have if it was fake), and the other yes could simply be that the budget ran out, and that would work if people were still able to get the ad to work with the characters after the 'black out'.
Was it a black out or has anyone gotten it to work at all? I just tried with a vpn and i cant get it to work at all.


Personally, I think it's actually having to do with the algorithm, and that it isn't a fake ad. If you watch papageno's video, they were able to get the ad to come up with other words that one way or another tied to 'dlc'. Not all, but some, which goes in favor that it's complicated and not just everything tied to dlc brought it up.

I saved the video at 13:20 to see what I'm talking about. He shows some of the words they tried.

Not only is it a couple of dlc from other games, but the dark souls dlc is actually called Artorias of the Abyss, which would explain why it came up for artorias.
Showing that it most likely has to do with the algorithm, nothing more.


The west didn't get anything around these characters, so that tells me that maybe europe's department didn't use their google ads tools correctly compared to other places, among other possibilities.
I think it's also possible that they refined it after they saw that they were getting hits in ways that they shouldn't, which is something that can happen, and it's normal to refine it, including adding negative keywords to stop getting those hits.

And that's my take on it

algorithm being funky is a good possibility, though i'd argue it doesn't account for why the ads themselves were broken, i.e. trying to lead to the FightersPass URL instead of nintendo's official redirect. if these were real ads just misplaced, they should be as functional as joker's.

 

[Teeb147]

algorithm being funky is a good possibility, though i'd argue it doesn't account for why the ads themselves were broken, i.e. trying to lead to the FightersPass URL instead of nintendo's official redirect. if these were the real ads, they should be as functional as joker's.

They weren't necessarily broken. Unless you have extra info. Only Ryce brought it up, later on, and that's because he tried the url on the actual ad. If you try the one on the official ad right now it's broken too. :/

 

[Gentlepanda]

They weren't necessarily broken. Unless you have extra info. Only Ryce brought it up, later on, and that's because he tried the url on the actual ad. If you try the one on the official ad right now it's broken too. :/

as i posted above, clicking the real ad redirects me to this page, even right this second. the fake ads always tried to send me straight to www.nintendo.co.uk/SmashBros/FightersPass, which is a broken link because that URL doesn't actually exist.

 

[Teeb147]

as i posted above, clicking the real ad redirects me to this page, even right this second. the fake ads always tried to send me straight to www.nintendo.co.uk/SmashBros/FightersPass, which is a broken link because that URL doesn't actually exist.

The 'fake' ads arent there anymore. (or not necessarily fake, but the ones tied with the characters)

or did you manage to get it to come up?

 

[Gentlepanda]

The fake ads arent there anymore.

i mean from when they were up a few days ago. i never had artorias etc. work upon clicking, whereas joker always redirected me successfully.

 

[Teeb147]

i mean from when they were up a few days ago. i never had artorias etc. work upon clicking, whereas joker always redirected me successfully.

That's the first I hear about that. No one before said they didnt work. :/

 

[Gentlepanda]

That's the first I hear about that. No one before said they didnt work. :/

just a few posts up, among others i've seen

didn't the link redirect to a blank page on the NoE site?

my main point is that if this was just algorithm weirdness, the 'fake' ads should have still redirected successfully by virtue of being the exact same ad used for joker. that there was any disparity at all suggests to me that they're entirely different ads, not accidental instances of the same one.

 

[Teeb147]

just a few posts up, among others i've seen

my main point is that if this was just algorithm weirdness, the 'fake' ads should have still redirected successfully by virtue of being the exact same ad used for joker. that there was any disparity at all suggests to me that they're entirely different ads, not accidental instances of the same one.

I mean you're the first person i see to say that the redirect to nintendo's page didn't work correctly when it was with those characters.

People were talking about Ryce's post, and you miight not have seen polarpanda's post in response?
Edit: Actually, I'll have to withhold on that for now, because she said different things.


I'm not sure some things were talked about properly. But now there's a pretty good question to ask people who tried the ad with the characters when it was there. Maybe in papagenos or polarpanda's discord? Around if the redirect (not the url 'on' the ad) worked back then. And if it worked back then without more specific words, too.

 

[Cheezey Bites]

I just searched Banjo Smash Bros this is the copied link address from the top ad:


https://www.googleadservices.com/pa...=2ahUKEwjE3aKk-aDiAhWK1uAKHWQyApkQ0Qx6BAgQEAE


I dont know of it'll work in the US, but here it redirects to:

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Ni...sTLTCh34dQrhEAAYASAAEgI6JvD_BwE#Fighters_Pass