I think PASBR is a missed opportunity for SCE, indipendently on how successfull the game will be.
It's clear their intention was to try replicating SSB success on Ps3, and doing so by putting a bunch of (not very) famous PS characters in a single brawl game. My question is, why did they have to replicate the "Nintendo characters" strategy? I think it would have been much better if they opted for a completely new brawl IP, using new characters instead of "all-stars".
From a gameplay point of view, this decision would have given game designers more freedom. They would have been able to make character and moves expecially designed for the purpose of brawling, instead of adapting characters taken from totally different fileds. They would have been able to add more player customization or RPG elements; on the other hand the chioce of "famuos" is limiting since you can't alter too much intellectual properties.
From a marketing point of view it may seem better to use famous characters but I have my sincere doubts about it. Sure, for Nintendo who has characters like Mario, Link and Pikachu it is an obvious choice.
SCE, on the other hand, doesn't have very popular characters (except for Kratos maybe, which is uncomparable to Mario anyway) but more importantly, they have never been too attached to characters. On the contrary SCE has always been about creating new characters, new stories, new IPs and that's not considered as a weakness but as a strenght by both the media and Sony fans.
I'm not into judging the final work of the developer, but everything about PASBR presentation (starting from the terrible -imo- name) made it look like a cheap SSB ripoff, a game without its own identity.
Imo if they made (and presented) it as a brand new IP it would have gathered more (and more positive) attention from both gamers and the media, so, in the end, it wold have sold more copies.
