Sakurai reveals how he’s trying to stop Smash Ultimate DLC fighter rumors

Super Smash Bros series creator Masahiro Sakurai has explained how he tries to prevent Ultimate DLC rumors from spreading.

It would seem like not a day goes by when there isn’t some sort of new Smash Ultimate fighter rumor. Ever since the series started adding third party fighters in the form of Sonic and Solid Snake back in Brawl, any video game character has a legitimate possibility of joining the roster.

Only adding fuel to the fire is that multiple studios have voiced their interest in characters from their games being added to Smash. For instance, Ed Boon has said he would ‘love’ to see Scorpion in Ultimate, Doom Eternal devs claimed they reached out to Nintendo about adding Doom Slayer, and Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan told Nintendo they could use “any” of the game’s heroes.

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With all these requests, rumors are bound to spread, but Sakurai has changed his routine to make sure that people don’t start coming up with wild theories.

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In a leaked column for the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu and translated by journalist PushDustIn, the game developer delved into how the mere idea of him playing a game gets all sorts of ideas in fans’ heads.

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“There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding whenever Sakurai plays a game. People, especially abroad, tend to think Sakurai playing a game [equals] that character will be in Smash. This is why Sakurai doesn’t post about the games he’s playing. Sakurai is playing more games than usual.”

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This confusion is likely due to a 2006 Source Gaming article in which the creator said he played a lot of Sonic before adding him to Brawl.

“If I gave him the same super-mobility he possesses in his original game, he would have became overpowered,” he wrote at the time. “What was I to do? I was conflicted,”

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“I do this with all characters, but I decided I needed to first immerse myself in the original games and absorb the creator’s intention. Even though Sonic has a lot of games, I decided to base the core of Sonic on the ones I played. Of course, I played the older titles, but I also completed the newest installment at the time – Sonic the Hedgehog for the Playstation 3.”

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Additionally, Sakurai did say he played an early version of Fire Emblem: Three Houses before adding Byleth to the game, so while it’s clear that he does in fact play games featuring some characters that end up in Smash, not every one he plays has that luxury.

In any case, the identity of the next fighter, an ARMS representative, will be announced and released later in June. It’s unclear if the second character in Fighters Pass Volume 2 will be announced at the same time, but fans are definitely anxious to see if he or she is.