I distance myself from Smash forum talk anyway, but going through these threads is just kinda mind-numbing.
For Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Nintendo Switch, GameFAQs presents a message board for game discussion and help.
gamefaqs.gamespot.com
For Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Nintendo Switch, a GameFAQs message board topic titled "Now that Crash and Hayabusa are deconfirmed the last two picks are gonna be bad".
gamefaqs.gamespot.com
For Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Nintendo Switch, a GameFAQs message board topic titled "Again, Crash Bandicoot is not as you all call it, deconfirmed.".
gamefaqs.gamespot.com
And for all this deconfirm talk of theirs, they seem to only ever put forward the evidence for that being the flimsy NateDrake podcast thing from a while ago we already talked over, and this new flimsy piece where a guy (who's just been guessing since Min Min, was it?) just said no to a clickbait article over a voice work thing meaning "a Smash leak". Maybe also the TFB creative being asked about Crash, but we also talked over that. I did see one person claim "NateDrake saw a character that wasn't Crash or MC" but I'm not sure if that's just bogus.
So if the "multiple leakers denying Crash" are just literally these two flimsy things and refuting it with "he was just saying no to a clickbait article" doesn't even get questioned, it doesn't seem to make much of a case for deconfirmation, at the very least. Would y'all say so?
Also lol at "his requests would have came in too late for Ultimate". Steve was being negotiated since like 2015 (which may also contrast with "but Microsoft and Nintendo had a good relationship" depending on if it started pre-Microsoft purchase or not, this being years before the SURVIVE TOGETHER campaign was even a thing), was his support at Smash 4's last days the level it was through Ultimate's speculation? Not to say it didn't exist, but was it what fuelled those negotiations, or just adjacent to it? Also Terry, Joker for characters with less of a definitive Smash demand, but maybe those were also fuelled by a more personal desire to get in from the Smash people or something.