That makes sense, but remember that these are the same people that revealed a new console only for even the smart people (gaming journalists and hardcore gamers) to confuse it with a new controller for the Wii. Nintendo makes excellent products, but their marketing is very hit or miss.
Yes, it's true that Nintendo has had a history of iffy marketing. But let's also remember that their marketing stunts back in the day are the reason we're even talking about video games in the 2010's, haha. And, more importantly, as far as WarioWare Gold's marketing has gone, it has seemingly matched the caliber of the game itself, I would say.
Well, we really only have four non-echoes so far so I think our dataset is a little too small to draw firm conclusions.
We have eight newcomers, Echoes included. Three of those are classic "speculation" picks, some of which have been wanted since Melee. Another four are popular, in their own right, but are also easy on development time due to their potential as Echoes. Then there's Inkling, who's sort of a more modern offshoot of the first category. The sample size is big enough. Considering we're less than four months away from the game's release, I doubt the sample size will get too much bigger (and if it does, I'm guessing most of those will be Echoes).
Well, 2D Mario games are system-sellers that consistently sell tens of millions of units yet the series went on a 15 year hiatus after the SNES era. More importantly though, I can easily see this being the last one and they continue making money off of it with expansions and DLC much like Skyrim, WoW, and Minecraft (with an all-in-one version coming out every few years). With a Smash 6 they would have to cut beloved veteran characters (Sakurai's least favourite part of his job), they wouldn't be able to have 100+ stages, and the online playerbase would become split between two different games.
This is more of a "tomato, tomato" case. Sure, 2D sidescrolling Mario took a break, but it was suspiciously around the time that 3D Mario was born, almost as if one was the natural progression of the other. You may see it as one successful series coming to a halt while another begins, but I see it as the series evolving in order to utilize the technology that was once unavailable.
And sure, if a sequel were to be made, there may not be as many characters or stages, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I personally would love to see the series reborn, trimming the fat on the roster, bringing in newcomers in their place, and presenting new ideas that there simply wasn't time to birth during games like Ultimate.
That's not quite what I was saying. My point was that the game would have low sales because it's on a dying console, and that another character in Smash may have helped alleviate that. But that's an interesting point, you're saying that F-Zero was meant to be a big-budget game but didn't pull in E ticket sales numbers whereas WarioWare was meant to be a smaller scale project with very modest expectations? At any rate, here are the present sales figures for Japan. I'm not sure if this is any good for two weeks after launch, though it should be noted that both WarioWare and the 3DS are much bigger in Japan than elsewhere:
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/20...japanese_charts_games_fill_16_of_top_20_spots
That wasn't my point, but I'll take it, haha.
No, I was saying this: It doesn't matter if a series has a character in Smash or not, as nice as the exposure may be. The end-all is "does the game look appealing enough to consumers to the point that it sells successfully?" F-Zero, seemingly, was not successful, despite Captain Falcon's legendary nature as "the superhero guy from Smash". WarioWare Gold, on the other hand, seems to be doing just fine in the marketing department, and, as a (presumably) lower-budget title on a dying console (with a sizable install base, mind you) seems to be selling alright. That's why the jump from "Step 1: No Smashley" to "Step 2: Wario dies forever" is illogical, in my eyes.
If he doesn't make it clear though, that could hurt Ashley on things like the Smash ballot.
A couple of things here:
1) A second Smash Ballot is purely hypothetical. As a matter of fact, while I can't find it right now, I could've sworn that I read an article where Sakurai said he learned a lot from the Ballot, but doesn't intend to do another one any time soon. Even without a Ballot, there are plenty of avenues to show your support, though.
2) If a second Ballot were to happen, it would be remiss of Sakurai to say "rule number one: NO ASSIST TROPHIES!", considering so many of them are popular characters that Sakurai simply considered too low-priority for the time being (Krystal, Knuckles, Bomberman, Shovel Knight, Zero, Ashley, Waluigi, and Midna, just to name a few off the top of my head). If Sakurai loves money, and the consumers voted for an Assist Trophy, he would put them in, no questions asked.
I read that as "more expensive" at first lol. I sure hope not!
Haha, no. I would be pretty mad if they made the DLC more expensive. It's gonna be bad enough that there'll probably be more of it this time around, haha.
Off the top of my head: Waluigi, Issac, Isabelle, whichever Pokemon don't get in this time (plus the ones in the new game), the new Fire Emblem characters, Spring Man, Krystal, Takamaru, Geno, Shadow, Impa, Skull Kid.
I was initially going to do an in-depth analysis of this one sentence, but to save time, I will just say this: I was referring to characters that could be considered "Nintendo All-Stars". You know the ones: the characters from successful franchises that show up all the time, and everyone likes them ... more or less. Some of these characters could certainly be considered slightly out of left field "popularity" choices, but I wouldn't call Isaac a "Nintendo All-Star". Also, Geno and Shadow aren't Nintendo characters.
Ashley is a likable character, especially in Japan (and, as we've learned recently, she even has a dedicated fanbase in the West, as well). As such, she is also marketable. And, while her series can be considered niche, it is a series with obvious staying power, considering it has appeared on every console since the GBA. Ashley has even gone on to ascend her home series, which rarely happens for minor characters. I think it's safe to say that she's among the Nintendo All-Stars.
One thing I've learned from all this is that Sakurai is both unpredictable and a bit of a troll. There's a formula, sure, but he regularly goes "lol nothing matters" and does whatever he feels like. Everyone that tries to figure him out gets been burned badly.
In general, I agree with you, but as it relates to this particular game, I dunno. Literally every character so far is a popular pick. And it's not like we have a lot of them left. If he has a "left field" card up his sleeve, it probably should've been played sometime sooner, haha. When you start off with Inkling and Ridley, and work your way up to Simon Belmont and King K. Rool, expectations are only going to get higher. If he pulls some dorky character like Bubbles from Clu Clu Land (I love Bubbles, but you get the point) out of thin air at this point, I will admit, it will be kind of disappointing. The man is obviously consulting the Ballot like a sacred text. Just think about how he has described at least three characters as "popular choices" (Ridley, Chrom, and Dark Samus). Fan-favoritism is obviously playing a role.
