Out of 20 characters, 4 are third party. Come on, drop the hyperbole.
16 of the roster are of PlayStation characters, many of which are iconic to PlayStation fans.
The third party characters are certainly marketing, but then again, so are the first party. Crossover fighters in general are marketing. I don't get why this is being treated like a bad thing for PBR.
I had no fricking CLUE who Roy and Marth were in Melee. But I became interested in them after playing them in Melee. Is that not marketing? Was it not successful?
Don't try and pretend that Smash Bros isn't cashing in on nostalgia and utilizing marketing tactics as well. I just don't see it as a bad thing. I was pretty familiar with the majority of the Melee cast (like 95%, actually), but the few that I didn't know I became familiar with thanks to them being in the game.
The thing about PBR, is that most of the inclusions aren't unknown characters. It's Dante, Big Daddy, Heihachi, and Raiden. They can only help the game, when it comes to people that maybe aren't big on Ratchet, Drake, Sly, or Kratos. There were even a few people in the discussion thread that went out and bought the Jak, Ratchet, and Sly games because of their inclusion in this game. They came for some other character, and ended up learning about a new franchise, and became fans.
I think it's awesome. I love that crossover fighters have that potential to broaden people's gaming circle to new characters and games.
If Roy and Marth being in Melee led people to try Fire Emblem, is that a bad thing? I don't think so.