Wyrdness said:
The is evidence they're going for a Smash 5 as a port would have been out by now or announced you've even admitted yourself you'd prefer S5 than a port and a number of other people are the same and no doubt Nintendo themselves are aware of that. Nintendo don't care that Wii U is seen as the definitive version they care about the total units moved and that is 13m more than any game in the series. MK8D has some changes over the Wii U version despite being a port, MK also doen't have much variation in approach compared to Smash which changes from game to game so it's a lot easier to get away with it with MK but also MK8 is only on the Wii U unlike Smash 4 so people who didn't have a Wii U which is a lot of people would not have had the chance to purchase it unlike S4 which is highlighted by how the latter in total almost doubles the sales of the former. Switch is going to outsell the Wii U early next year and a lot of Switch buyers will be 3DS owners as well who have access to S4 but not MK8. |
If Smash 5 were in development, they would have announced it already and the internet would be melting with hype, just like with 4 and Brawl.
Announcing a port is a different situation than announcing a brand new installment. The time table between announcement and release is usually much shorter for a port (MK8D - 6 months, Pokken - 3 months) than it is for a new installment (Fire Emblem, Metriod Prime 4, and Pokemon - TBD). So, the reason Smash 4 Deluxe wasn't announced is because its release isn't close yet. And because they want to pattern and organize their releases to fill out the schedule and continue momentum. With ports, 60% of the work on development is already done. It's simply a matter of choosing an approriate time to release it. That's one of the main purposes of ports, to fill out the gaps in a release schedule.
Between Breath of the Wild, MK8D, ARMS, Splatoon 2, Xenoblade 2, Pokken DX, Mario x Rabbids, and Odyssey, there was no need or rush for Smash Bros. in 2017. 2018, however, based on what we know so far, looks to be the perfect time for Smash Bros. to come in. All that's been confirmed so far are Yoshi, Kirby, and Fire Emblem, in terms of first party, Animal Crossing is widely assumed to be 2018, since everyone generally agrees that Metroid Prime 4 and Pokemon aren't coming any time soon.
Three 'B' Tier games so far, compared to 3 'A' Tier games the year before, two of which are being considered to be some of the greatest games in their franchises' history (Breath of the Wild and Odyssey), would be very underwhelming and shoot the Switch's momentum in the foot. They need some more big guns. Smash Bros. would be much more useful in that '2018' slot and it's much more feasible to port and enhance Smash 4 in the Switch, with the Wii U + 3DS content, making it the definitive version, than making Smash 5 from scratch.
That would mean that Smash 5 has been in development for some time, but like I said, we'd know about it by now. Why would they announce Prime 4 and Gen 8 before Smash 5 if the latter is much closer to completion and release than the former 2? That makes no sense.
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