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[Aaronrules380]

Namco doesn't own the rights to the character. Toei does.

Pretty sure Toei doesn't own full rights either. The rights are also split up between Shueisha who published the manga, and Toriyama as the creator. And that's just in Japan, since licensing rights are split up between many groups outside Japan. It's why any anime/manga character is going to be a licensing nightmare for a worldwide game. Pretty sure Jump Stars Vs+ localization was mostly possible because most of those rights were centralized at VIZ in america for shonen jump properties, but when you get the entire world involved, the rights become way more dicey

 

[Little Mons†er]

http://nintendoeverything.com/super-smash-bros-fighter-ballot-garnered-1-8-million-votes-worldwide/


The other winners were probably shit like Goku, John Cena, and Snake.

I've always been confused by those Smash truthers who really think that K. Rool is something people wanted and that Sakurai rigged the vote to keep him out.

Love yourself.

 

[Dreavus]

You can already make Cena as a Mii

I made Daniel Bryan and Teddy Roosevelt for crying out loud

No kidding.

That was part of the impetus behind including Miis in the first place, if the old digital event announcement is to be believed.

 

[Japanmanx3]

If you voted for Klonoa, then you are my brother. If you voted for Goku, then you are my stepbrother.

If you voted for K. Tool, you suck and are my enemy!

 

[The Bankslammer]

looking at the column now, don't see any other information about the ballot

he does mention the difficulties of getting bayonetta to fit within every country's rating system, lol. in particular he had difficulty with CERO and bayonetta's "sexy expressions"

 

[Kyzon]

I put in an extra vote for Ridley, so he should have taken the entire ballot with that.


Oh well.

 

[Kyne]

Dragonball kid Goku with the power pole and flying nimbus would have been a genuine good choice.

 

[Broken Joystick]

They're definitely going to use the results to get a headstart on Smash 5 DLC.

 

[SporeCrawler]

http://nintendoeverything.com/super-smash-bros-fighter-ballot-garnered-1-8-million-votes-worldwide/


The other winners were probably shit like Goku, John Cena, and Snake.

I've always been confused by those Smash truthers who really think that K. Rool is something people wanted and that Sakurai rigged the vote to keep him out.

John Cena would be awesome in smash.. Snake would be great but I think Snake Rattle N Roll is a Rare game.

 

[Firemind]

So Simon Belmont won the ballet.

Right?

 

[L Thammy]

1.8 million votes and only 0.8 of them were for Goku.

Namco doesn't own the rights to the character. Toei does.

I'm not even sure that they do (entirely). I think Akira Toriyama himself might hold some of the rights as well - several Jump manga have sequels in unrelated magazines.

They're definitely going to use the results to get a headstart on Smash 5 DLC.

I've been thinking that too. It's the same as what happened with previous polls.

 

[DecoReturns]

I just realized that classic Dark pit meme was almost coming true with the trailer with pit.

 

[HardRojo]

I wanted Kid Goku to make it in. He would have been perfect and I don't know why people hate the idea of him appearing in Smash. Just because he's not originally from a videogame? He fits in just nicely even if he's originally from a manga series.

Dragonball kid Goku with the power pole and flying nimbus would have been a genuine good choice.

This guy gets it.

 

[RandomExpletive]

I am eager to find out just how badly Wonder Red was robbed

 

[The Bankslammer]

sakurai also briefly talks about how they came to the decision to include corrin. it seems like he met with nintendo about including a character from a recent game and they decided on advertising fates with corrin.

someone else can probably provide a better translation than i can so hopefully it's ok if i post an excerpt.

せっかくDLCを作るのならと、これから発売される最新作から登場させることを検討したのが制作の発端です。任天堂と協議を重ね、各新作の販売計画を知り、ちょうどよいところにいたのが「FEif」でした。日本ではすでに発売されているのですが、海外では発売時期にリリースできるいいタイミング。個人的には「エムブレム」系のファイターが増えすぎることを問題に感じましたが、開発スタッフとお話しし、内容を打ち合わせ、おもしろくできると確信しました。

Sakurai himself actually says he felt there were too many Fire Emblem characters, but after discussing it with the staff, they thought they could make it interesting.

 

[Pizza]

In super interested: I voted for k. Rool once, a couple times for ice climbers, a few times for Bayonetta, 20+ times for Starman from NES pro wrestling and over a hundred times for Wonder Red


We all know Starman won, sakurai. Give it up.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

YoooooOooooOOOiu

 

[Neoxon]

The characters above Bayonetta were likely Banjo, Goku, Snake, Shrek, etc.

 

[ffdgh]

Do tell sakurai. I want to know what japan's top 5 is.

 

[Nightbird]

Sakurai himself actually says he felt there were too many Fire Emblem characters, but after discussing it with the staff, they thought they could make it interesting.

Considering, what many are saying, Shovel Knight would be more interesting than a shape-shifter lol

 

[DecoReturns]

Don't tell us Sakurai, you'll start World War 3

 

[ffdgh]

Considering, what many are saying, Shovel Knight would be more interesting than a shape-shifter lol

People will warm up to water Arceus...eventually.

 

[Cramoss]

I'd rather have John Cena over another anime swordsman.

 

[Deleted member 74300]

As if the results would even matter. It was still just a ruse set up by the ruse masters Sakurai and Kamiya.

 

[Kinhow]

I've voted for Lip (Panel de Pon) and Sami (advance Wars).
I'm always hoping they'll appear as characters, but they never do.

 

[GamerJM]

I'd rather have John Cena over another anime swordsman.

I'd legitimately like Goku, John Cena, etc. to be in the game over Corrin, and Fire Emblem is a top 3 Nintendo series for me. They're iconic characters that have appeared on Nintendo consoles. Fuck video games only.

 

[Stupid Sexy Flanders]

If I knew about it at the time I would have voted for One Punch Man

Instead I had to vote for Inklings, and all that got me were some mii costumes

 

[Neoxon]

I'd legitimately like Goku, John Cena, etc. to be in the game over Corrin, and Fire Emblem is a top 3 Nintendo series for me. They're iconic characters that have appeared on Nintendo consoles. Fuck video games only.

Seeing as the Smash Ballot specifically said "video game characters", originating from a video game seems to be the only rule that will stick.

If I knew about it at the time I would have voted for One Punch Man

Instead I had to vote for Inklings, and all that got me were some mii costumes

I wouldn't worry, the Inklings were inevitable either way. Now we just now that the Inklings will come in Smash 5.

 

[JCX]

ITT I learned that the Cena votes were not completely ironic. Thankfully Sakurai subverted democracy to get us Bayonetta.

Corrin as a marketing tool was obvious, but at least Sakurai also thinks there are too many FE characters. Wonder if Lucina will get removed in the next one.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

I genuinely believe Snake won the ballot.

I wonder if we'll ever know.

 

[Neoxon]

ITT I learned that the Cena votes were not completely ironic. Thankfully Sakurai subverted democracy to get us Bayonetta.

Corrin as a marketing tool was obvious, but at least Sakurai also thinks there are too many FE characters. Wonder if Lucina will get removed in the next one.

Unless Smash 5 is Smash 4.5, I wouldn't be shocked. At least Dark Pit has a ton of room to be unique by using whatever weapons Pit & Palutena left hanging on the rack. Though assuming Sakurai comes back, Lucina will either be playable or not in the game at all. As shown by Dr. Mario, Sakurai seems to be a bit against demoting a once-playable character to an alternate costume.

 

[Wagram]

Being a wrestling fan, I dislike John Cena - the television entertainment character.

However - Holy shit how amazingly troll it would be to see him in Smash though. I would want that simply for the outcry.

 

[Illucio]

1.8 million votes and only 0.8 of them were for Goku.



I'm not even sure that they do (entirely). I think Akira Toriyama himself might hold some of the rights as well - several Jump manga have sequels in unrelated magazines.



I've been thinking that too. It's the same as what happened with previous polls.

Dragonballs rights is as messy as Marvel's rights with movies.

Different people have different rights over different material.

Toei Techmo has rights over the dedicated games. Akira holds rights to characters. Shonen has rights over the adaption of the manga and it's uses. And Fuji owns the rights to the cartoon they adapted and made and it's footage.

So basically to get Goku in Smash would require Sakurai to get rights from Akira himself. Toei Techmo doesn't have any rights over the inclusion of the characters, they have the right to make games based off the franchise. It's very tricky and annoying. In hindsight Banjo Kazooie and Mickey Mouse would be easier to get rights to then Goku since all the rights to those characters are strictly own by their parent companies respectively.

Pretty sure Toei doesn't own full rights either. The rights are also split up between Shueisha who published the manga, and Toriyama as the creator. And that's just in Japan, since licensing rights are split up between many groups outside Japan. It's why any anime/manga character is going to be a licensing nightmare for a worldwide game. Pretty sure Jump Stars Vs+ localization was mostly possible because most of those rights were centralized at VIZ in america for shonen jump properties, but when you get the entire world involved, the rights become way more dicey

Pretty much this.

 

[Roo]

I wonder how high Britney got.

It's Britney, bitch!

 

[foltzie1]

Cena appeared in more nintendo games than Cloud ;D
=

Ice cold and true, though if 2k games stay off of Nintendo consoles this could change with the FF spin offs that come to the 3ds that feature Cloud.

Honestly if Cena got a number of votes the lack of 2k support on the Wii U might be a factor.

 

[Mr-Joker]

If you voted for Klonoa, then you are my brother. If you voted for Goku, then you are my stepbrother.

If you voted for K. Tool, you suck and are my enemy!

What if I voted for Elsa?

 

[pinkurocket]

So where does Shrek rank in the US?

 

[L Thammy]

Dragonballs rights is as messy as Marvel's rights with movies.

very detailed post

I assume you mean Bandai Namco rather than Koei Tecmo. Otherwise it would really be complicated.

But that does sound right. I'd have to look at the credits again, but I'd imagine that this is how so many manga characters made it into Jump Superstars and Jump Ultimate Stars (Nintendo-published games) despite having Namco Bandai licensing. It's not a dedicated game for any particular manga franchise.

Regarding Viz above, I think it's worth mentioning that Viz is partly owned by Shueisha. I think that situation is meant to make licensing easier (although that's just conjecture on my part).

 

[MLH]

I said it in the Bayo announcement thread and I'll say it here, I bet more people voted for Bayonetta in smash than actually bought the games; hopefully we get some solid numbers. It must leave some scratching their heads...

 

[IceDoesntHelp]

and over 900,000 votes were idiotic.

 

[HyperCubed4]

I wouldn't have minded if Snake got in, although considering the state of Konami at the moment, Nintendo would be lucky to get any characters from them. Cloud is an iconic FF character, but one can't help but wonder why they didn't choose a classic Final Fantasy character (FFVI or earlier) who actually appeared on one of their consoles... or Crono.

If I knew about it at the time I would have voted for One Punch Man

Instead I had to vote for Inklings, and all that got me were some mii costumes

Saitama's counter pick is obvious.

Spoiler

I'll be here all week, folks.

 

[bobbychalkers]

Regarding Viz above, I think it's worth mentioning that Viz is partly owned by Shueisha. I think that situation is meant to make licensing easier (although that's just conjecture on my part).

Anime liscensing for games has definitely gotten better over the years seeing as games like Tatsunoko vs Capcom, J-Stars Victory VS, and Dengeki Bunko made it over with little or no cuts and changes. But going out of their way for a single character probably isn't worth the headaches.

I wouldn't have minded if Snake got in, although considering the state of Konami at the moment, Nintendo would be lucky to get any characters from them. Cloud is an iconic FF character, but one can't help but wonder why they didn't choose a classic Final Fantasy character (FFVI or earlier) who actually appeared on one of their consoles... or Crono.

As perplexed as I was from his reveal. I totally get why Cloud got in. For all intents and purposes, he is Mr. Final Fantasy. I think even more people would be upset if FF was represented by anyone other than him. The assumed Nintendo relevance rule got thrown out when Snake showed up in Brawl.

 

[TheGreatMightyPoo]

As if the results would even matter. It was still just a ruse set up by the ruse masters Sakurai and Kamiya.

 

[wild wild rice]

You guys can't handle the truth!

 

[RomanceDawn]

What reason did I have to believe that the votes would reach beyond 5 million or so? Don't no body know nuthin' bout nuthin'.

Actually what I do know is that Ridley was in the top 2 for all territories. Sakurai knows exactly what he has to do next to please the masses.

 

[Nocturnowl]

I'd rather have John Cena over another anime swordsman.

The truth right here.

He'd have a comeback mechanic similar to Lucario's aura so he could overcome the odds after getting beaten down all match long.

sakurai also briefly talks about how they came to the decision to include corrin. it seems like he met with nintendo about including a character from a recent game and they decided on advertising fates with corrin.

It's like they just keep making me dislike this decision more and more, honestly I already felt like Robin was a kind of nudge nudge for people to check out Awakening.
Well hopefully he'll be interesting to play as.

 

[bobbychalkers]

sakurai also briefly talks about how they came to the decision to include corrin. it seems like he met with nintendo about including a character from a recent game and they decided on advertising fates with corrin.

someone else can probably provide a better translation than i can so hopefully it's ok if i post an excerpt.



Sakurai himself actually says he felt there were too many Fire Emblem characters, but after discussing it with the staff, they thought they could make it interesting.

Corrin looks cool to play as but in that circumstance I would have liked it to have been Elma from XCX.

 

[Draxal]

ITT I learned that the Cena votes were not completely ironic. Thankfully Sakurai subverted democracy to get us Bayonetta.

Corrin as a marketing tool was obvious, but at least Sakurai also thinks there are too many FE characters. Wonder if Lucina will get removed in the next one.

Roy would go before Lucina. Lucina = gender representation and comes from a more popular game.

 

[BatDan]

So they are going to release the "results"
I'm curious where Wonder-Red placed. At least there's always Smash 5 (Nintendo IP and all).
If Snake was in the Top 5 for America, then it shows Konami are the fucking worst, refusing to allow him in a popular game like Smash Bros.

I bet they'll have a separate list for the non-video game character votes. I imagine the interns going through the votes just rolling their eyes at every Goku and Shrek vote. "Not a fucking video game character" they would mumble to themselves.

 

[notaskwid]

How dare you calling John Cena, Goku and Snake "shit"?