do not think that it will have four, though an argument certainly could be made that it deserves four; however, an argument could be made that many other franchises deserve four as well.
There are not "many" other series that deserve four playable character. The only other series you could make as strong a case for deserving four playable characters is DK. Kirby and Star Fox could technically have four playable characters as well, however, demand is rather weak for those series to have four playable characters.
I'm aware, but what Brawl was going to have is rather irrelevant given that what Brawl did have was 2 FE reps. When push came to shove, they decided that Roy was not worthy of inclusion and dropped him.
It was likely the inclusion of Sonic and time constraints that bumped Mewtwo and Roy out of Brawl. Almost making it for Brawl and popularly requested for Smash 4 means there is a lot more going for him than a lot of other characters.
What makes you think that the total amount of Mario or Pokemon slots will be increasing? Pokemon has six characters already and Mario in Brawl did not receive any more slots than it had in Melee, plus Mario already has its bases well covered.
Because Mewtwo is the most wanted character for Smash 4, and no one wants to see any of the playable Pokemon in Brawl cut, so at the very least Pokemon would have five slots in Smash 4.
As for Mario, while its possible it won't have a newcomer, there is demand for Toad, Bowser Jr., Paper Mario, and Waluigi. Those characters are all popular and recognizable which cannot be said for much of the other remaining potential newcomer pool.
However, even if Mario does not get a newcomer. It still could have more content in other ways (stages, items, music, Assist Trophies, bosses, stickers, etc.).
New Super Mario Bros. Wii was the second highest selling home console game of all tiem in Japan. If you are going to press on about how FE13's success means we are guaranteed a FE13 character, then I guess NSBWii's success guarantees us getting either Toad or Bowser Jr.
I'm sure people would love for Fire Emblem to get four slots; hell, I would. Fan opinion, however, does not dictate what is likely to be done by the dev team.
And what puts you in the positions about what is likely to be done by the development team? I already said that its pretty much FE and DK of which there exists the most support for them to be expanded to four playable characters, and if Marth, Roy, and Ike are all very popular characters, and if FE13 HAS to have a character, why not just put them all in and satisfy everyone (especially considering how feasible it would be).
Roy has more demand among avid Smash fans because he was in a previous Smash game and cut; it's only natural that he would have high demand for his return. Unfortunately, as noted, fan demand does not always dictate business practices. I doubt many fans were requesting that Roy be cut in order to include Ike.
And what's to say they could not make money off of Roy in the future? They are already using the popularity of Marth, Roy, and Ike for FE13's DLC (heck, there is a DLC arc in FE13 called "Smash Brethren" which pits the armies of Elibe led by Roy versus the armies of Tellius led by Ike).
Its possible they could make a FE6 remake in the future, especially considering one of the higher-ups at Intelligent Systems has expressed interest in doing it.
As for excitement, this is a rather abstract measure, and I am rather skeptical that there would not be much excitement for Chrom or Lucina given Awakening's massive popularity.
I see very little support for Lucina on this forum (she does not even have a support topic). Support for Chrom is not much as well. Just look at the Smash 4 character poll on this forum, even Lyn has more votes than Chrom.
As I said before, what makes you think Roy (and Ike) would not have future sales utility, when they even have it in the present.
Also, FE13 will be nearly three years old by the time Smash 4 releases in Japan, and nearly two years old in the West. By then, most sales are already done for a game (especially for a RPG).
I don't deny that it's not the strongest evidence, which is why I stated that Nintendo could very well change things up. However, you would have to be willfully ignorant to deny that there certainly exists a trend of Nintendo inserting into Smash whoever the most recent FE lord is in order to drive sales. Roy was cut to make room for Ike for a reason.
Micaiah was the most recent lord at the time of Brawl though. Secondly, Roy was not cut to make room for Ike, Roy was a lower priority though (however, Sakurai still had the intention of bringing him back). The very late inclusion of Sonic (by far the most wanted newcomer for Brawl) and having to include Sonic and all the various Sonic related content was likely what made Mewtwo and Roy miss out on Brawl (since their resources had to likely be re-allocated to getting Sonic in the game).
Financially, it makes far more sense for Nintendo to prioritize a FE13 character over Roy, and so I'm doubtful that Roy will appear in lieu of an Awakening character or Ike. If we get four slots for FE, Roy will quite likely return, but I don't see that happening given that many other franchises could justify an increase to four slots as well and that Sakurai has stated a desire to shine the limelight on some lesser-known characters again.
Sakurai has never said anything like that. We usually only get two retro character per Smash Bros. game (one of them this time will likely be Takamaru, with the other probably being a more bizarre choice like Mr. Game & Watch and ROB).
As for "many" other franchises that deserve an increase to four slots, as I said before, its pretty much just FE and DK.