So I wonder. At the initial Switch conference of January 2017 when they introduced the hardware and the features and the first games and so on, they mentioned the paid online service for the first time and stated it would launch sometime later that year. This didn't happen, its kick-off got delayed a few months. Later, this still didn't happen, online is still free today and is supposed to change that way in september.
Could this be related to Smash? Could the release of Smash be the cause of the online delay? If your first thought is yes, then that means Nintendo had planned to release Smash already in 2017. Imagine how much of a shortage THAT would have caused!
Speaking of the shortages, could THEY in turn be a factor for the Smash delay? Could it be that Nintendo didn't want to put even more pressure on the already unlucky situation? If yes, that would turn all this into a strategic release rather than a delay. Much like Odyssey had been finished much earlier than October already but they held it back on purpose. They may use these last months now to polish everything up and also to let some other, smaller games have some time to shine like those Wii U ports.
