Hey guys. Long time no see. I know I said a while ago that I was going to leave this page, but I wanted to come on here and give my thoughts on Crash's chances after the exposure of Activision being run by such terrible s****y people and creating such a toxic workplace for their employees. I know that I'm late to the party commenting on this, but this will be the only time I bring this up.
Despite everything that's happened with Activision Blizzard recently, I don't think Crash coming to Smash will be as controversial as a lot of people think it will (If he is going to be the last character). As we learned from the Byleth presentation from January 2020, Fighter Pass Vol. 2 was finalized back in November 2019 (the same time the Byleth presentation was recorded), almost 2 full years ago, and a long time before the scandal had been uncovered. If Crash is the final character, then it would likely be too late to stop developing him at this time, even with how much trouble Activision is in.
People are also worried about Nintendo receiving backlash for working with Activision to get Crash into Smash. But why would Nintendo get in any kind of major trouble for this scenario with people, when both Sony and Microsoft are still working with Activision to get their games on their systems? Especially when the extent of a Nintendo/Activision partnership in this case is merely asking for the rights to use Crash and content from his series for Smash. Yes, I'm sure some people will get mad at Nintendo for working with Activision in some way regardless, but the extent of them working together is so small in the grand scheme of things compared to Activision with Sony and Microsoft, that I just can't see it being that much of an issue.
Don't get me wrong. Activision Blizzard sucks! They've been a terrible company for years, and this workplace exposure only highlights that! I don't need to go into anymore detail why since I think everyone here knows too. But... I still want to see Crash in Smash. I don't think I'm going to waver from that dream in spite of everything. At the very least I haven't heard anything come out about any drama from Toys For Bob. At this point, they're probably the only part of Activision that's remained clean from what I've seen, and they work well with Crash and Spyro, which are the only series' from Activision I care about. And since Activision barely even seems to acknowledge them compared to Call of Duty, Destiny, Diablo, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, etc., if Crash makes it into Smash, then he might as well be a Toys For Bob rep.
I don't even know if Crash will be the final character. But just in case he is, I thought I'd share my views on his chances anyway despite everything. It's disappointing what's been going on with Activision's employees, and I can only hope that the top brass in charge gets further cleaned out after everything they let happen over the years.
That said, I'm still pulling for Crash in Smash. And since we know definitively now that there's only one character left, this is his last chance.