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Who at Nintendo is selecting DLC fighters, and why?

Xigger

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So, Sakurai made an official statement that the DLC fighters were selected by Nintendo. What are the implications? Why is this happening after so many Smash games?

For starters, this is a departure from Sakurai's meticulous habits, as Sakurai has always been the final judge when it comes to selecting fighters, as well as being in charge of nearly every detail in the entire game. Is this a sign that Sakurai is letting go of his old ways? Perhaps that Smash has grown too big to be completely controlled by him? Personally, I think he might be motivated to offload some work.

Also, who at Nintendo is a part of the fighter selection? The Smash community has investigated Sakurai's fighter selection habits for over a decade, but what about key Nintendo executives? How many Nintendo employees do we think is involved in this process? The Nintendo President, Miyamoto, Reggie, Nintendo EAD #4, etc.. If we knew which groups were a part of this, we could make some insightful guesses.

Who would we expect from different Nintendo executives? Do you think the big heads at Nintendo want their favorites fighters, or new characters to promote games? Is Miyamoto responsible for Piranha Plant?
 

Putuk

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If its some suits calling the shots it's just gonna be characters to promote upcoming games.
Which'll be quite a shame. It'll probably be a repeat of Corrin; a character people don't even know yet.

Those guys are probably thinking that putting characters from upcoming games in Smash will make people buy the upcoming games, but it's more likely people will be less interested in the DLC as they are not attached to these new characters. Selling fan favorite characters would probably sell better.


At least, that's the worst case scenario I'm bracing for. We're definitly getting ANOTHER Fire Emblem character with a sword that has a counter.
 

Xigger

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If its some suits calling the shots it's just gonna be characters to promote upcoming games.
Which'll be quite a shame. It'll probably be a repeat of Corrin; a character people don't even know yet.

Those guys are probably thinking that putting characters from upcoming games in Smash will make people buy the upcoming games, but it's more likely people will be less interested in the DLC as they are not attached to these new characters. Selling fan favorite characters would probably sell better.


At least, that's the worst case scenario I'm bracing for. We're definitly getting ANOTHER Fire Emblem character with a sword that has a counter.
That sounds like such a terrible idea though, at least for Western audiences who hated Corrin and/or Roy as promotional fighters. You would think Nintendo knows that wouldn't sell as well as, say, releasing the FE fighter AFTER the game release.
 

Kevandre

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I'm in general fine with promo fighters. I was a big fan of Roy and Corrin, anyway. Just about the only promo fighter I wouldn't want to see here is dude from Dragalia Lost
 

lucasla

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Just hope that will not be another generic sword fighter... I hope to see Rayman and Crash.
 
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Crystanium

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I'm going to assume that all DLC won't be from a franchise currently in the game. I made a thread for my reasons, but that's what I think. It could be first- or third-party. Other than that, who knows?
 

CaptainAmerica

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I bet it's either gonna be promotional or as a "thanks for supporting Switch' reward. I don't think there'll be too many first parties here.

After the Corrin backlash, they may be careful about doing promos...especially with respect to Fire Emblem. Otherwise, it could help newer third party franchises that supported Nintendo like Ubisoft or Bethesda. I can really see super popular things like Minecraft getting in as well.

I'm sure they just would prefer big, internet-breaking names (that would make loads of money from a wide audience) over niche characters that only the superfans wanted...? Maybe there'll be a second season for fan requests, since the ballot didn't get too many characters in.

As long as we have a Dragonborn inbound, I'll take literally anyone...
 
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Mogisthelioma

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For first parties, they'll probably choose some popular options such as Dee or Dixie Kong, or another FE promotional if they haven't learned their lesson yet. Then we'll get some third parties/guests.
 

TeenGirlSquad

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I think it's just because of normal restructuring at Nintendo since Iwata's death, obviously things are going to be different now in regards to a lot of stuff. I doubt it's in response to anything specific, if it is, it's either because they didn't like the backlash against Corrin (unlikely), or because they want to advertise very specific characters that belong to companies that they're trying to foster a relationship with right now (a little more likely).
 

NintenEdgyMan

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I think it will just be "break the internet" 3rd parties, particularly characters from Nintendo supporters.

A Bethesda character: Most likely Doom Guy or the guy from Skyrim

A Ubisoft character: Definitely Rayman

A Namco character: I hope and pray it's my boy Lloyd Irving but it's most likely Heihachi

A Square character: I hope to god it's Geno but most likely a Dragon Quest character

And then a Capcom character: It's most likely Monster Hunter or Phoenix Wright, And I hope it's Hunter.

It's easier to add 3rd parties as DLC because it's easier to give the companies a cut of that sweet DLC bucks.
 

osby

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Since I think it's too early to complain about hypothetical promotional characters, I'll just say this: It's not the first time Sakurai designed characters picked by other people. Corrin was development team's idea. Snake was a request from Kojima. Incineroar and Greninja was among suggested characters from Pokemon Company.

Sakurai still is the one who chooses the characters. It's not that big of a change.

That sounds like such a terrible idea though, at least for Western audiences who hated Corrin and/or Roy as promotional fighters. You would think Nintendo knows that wouldn't sell as well as, say, releasing the FE fighter AFTER the game release.
Roy was actually very well-received, a lot of people didn't liked he was cut in Brawl. Also Corrin was added almost six months after their games' release.
 

Venus of the Desert Bloom

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This is how I look at it:

Nintendo makes a list of potential DLC candidates.

Sakurai looks at said list and decides which ones are feasible for his team and ones that are not.

Reports back to Ninty HQ. They do the legal dance and then once things are all finished up legally, they begin development on the selected characters.


I don’t see why that’s such a big issue for some people.
 

osby

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This is how I look at it:

Nintendo makes a list of potential DLC candidates.

Sakurai looks at said list and decides which ones are feasible for his team and ones that are not.

Reports back to Ninty HQ. They do the legal dance and then once things are all finished up legally, they begin development on the selected characters.


I don’t see why that’s such a big issue for some people.
Reacting reasonably? But then how are they going to complain about Fire Emblem?
 

fewmets

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Reacting reasonably? But then how are they going to complain about Fire Emblem?
I mean we have what... 7 fire emblem characters already? That's 9% of the cast as just fire emblem characters.

It's perfectly reasonable to gripe about more fire Emblem, just like it's perfectly reasonable to gripe about more Pokemon. There's 8 of them which is over 10%. Or 13% if you count pokemon trainer as 3.
 

volbound1700

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Hopefully whoever at Nintendo is the biggest fan of Dixie Kong.
I wouldn't get your hopes up. I think we are going to get characters that are primarily Japanese. I would be surprised if we get WESTERN characters such as Dixie Kong, Banjo-Kazooie, and Rayman :(.
 

osby

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I mean we have what... 7 fire emblem characters already? That's 9% of the cast as just fire emblem characters.

It's perfectly reasonable to gripe about more fire Emblem, just like it's perfectly reasonable to gripe about more Pokemon. There's 8 of them which is over 10%. Or 13% if you count pokemon trainer as 3.
I'm talking about people complaining about Corrin and the unknown FE character we may or may not get, just because Sakurai said Nintendo makes the character choices.
 
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Xigger

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This is how I look at it:

Nintendo makes a list of potential DLC candidates.

Sakurai looks at said list and decides which ones are feasible for his team and ones that are not.

Reports back to Ninty HQ. They do the legal dance and then once things are all finished up legally, they begin development on the selected characters.


I don’t see why that’s such a big issue for some people.
There's always that part of the Smash fandom that can be offended by almost anything.
 

TheMisterManGuy

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If you're asking who specifically at Nintendo is choosing DLC, I'm pretty sure it's Shinya Takahashi. He's the head of Nintendo EPD, and as such oversees all Nintendo first party development. As for why, I think that one, Nintendo wants to avoid all the troll suggestions and unrealistic picks that plagued the Smash Ballot. And two, Nintendo likely has several new games coming that they'd want to help cross promote.
 

Xigger

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If you're asking who specifically at Nintendo is choosing DLC, I'm pretty sure it's Shinya Takahashi. He's the head of Nintendo EPD, and as such oversees all Nintendo first party development. As for why, I think that one, Nintendo wants to avoid all the troll suggestions and unrealistic picks that plagued the Smash Ballot. And two, Nintendo likely has several new games coming that they'd want to help cross promote.
That's a good deduction. Seems like he's directing every Nintendo game, and was promoted to Managing Executive Officer this year. I don't have the slightest clue what he would want in Smash though.
 
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