like i said, new characters will come through DLC, its wrong and its just for money but they are going to do it.

It really is a pretty rubbish roster. The only character Sony has right now that's iconic is Kratos. All the other franchise's aren't popular enough, even Drake from the undeservedly fairly popular (because of mass bundling) Uncharted series isn't at all iconic because he's so unbelievably generic that you wouldn't even be able to recognise him immediately in a group of as little as 10 or so people, not to mention he's a horribly written smart-arse of a character, I find him detestable. I actually know people who forgot his name after playing Uncharted. That would never happen with Kratos because he's unique, instantly recognisable and unforgettable.

An icon has to be instantly recognisable and has to be mostly beloved, hardly any of the characters fit that description in Playstation All-stars Battle Royale. The're also missing many characters that were household names for Playstation owners back in the day like Abe, Lara Croft, Crash, Spyro, Snake etc. I have no interest in this game.

Sorry just got to get a quick word in.

It actually is about sales. You cant say a franchise/icon is important to Sony if gamers never really took notice by the numbers. You talk about the fans and that this game is considered fan service..........look at the preorders. This is fan service dedicated to thousands........when the game should be dedicated to potential millions. Core fans dont make a profitable game. If you think its okay for Sony to loose money just to pelase those few thousand, then your doing more harm then good as a Sony fan. 

This is coming from me, but I am sure I am not alone when I say that roster is full of D-listers and some iconic 3rd party characters that made Sony great in PS1/PS2 days arent in there like Cloud, Crash, Spyro etc. Why they felt Big daddy belonged in this game when both bioshocks sold better on 360 puzzles me (sorry for getting off track with that last comment).

Highly disappointed in how many are missing. Pretty meagre lineup. I'm sure there will be DLC but would have expected at least 5-10 more considering how many series Sony has.

Where are:
- Any of the many characters from Crash Bandicoot (I know they don't own the IP, but I see other 3rd party characters on there and Crash means a ton to Sony fans)
- Nathan Hale
- A Chimera enemy (I see a Killzone enemy)
- Would be hilarious to see a Driver in the game based on Gran Turismo
- Someone from the older GTA game like Tommy Vermicelli (considering GTA was exclusive for a long time)
- Maybe Tanner from Driver
- Snake from MGS
- SOCOM Seal (would be kind of generic though I admit)
And more...that's just off the top of my head

ganoncrotch said: @dallinor I'm completely in the same boat with a few of the characters like I said earlier, but seriously spike isn't even the cover character of those games, surely if they wanted to make it the characters we know from the games they'd have just had the monkey with the flashing light cap on, everyone would recognize that right off as being Ape Escape, or the Radec character, I mean it's not even his full name and he himself isn't even a big enough character in the game he is featured to have his own wiki page, took some rooting to find out who he was even once I knew the game series he was in, it's just such an odd batch they've chosen to be the front men for the system :S

I'm pretty sure Spike is on the cover of Ape Escape.  Some examples:

(Spike is the guy with the spike-y hair.  Do you get the pun in his name? tehe)

 (Spike is also on this cover)

 (Spike is also on this cover)

Kresnik said: ganoncrotch said: @dallinor I'm completely in the same boat with a few of the characters like I said earlier, but seriously spike isn't even the cover character of those games, surely if they wanted to make it the characters we know from the games they'd have just had the monkey with the flashing light cap on, everyone would recognize that right off as being Ape Escape, or the Radec character, I mean it's not even his full name and he himself isn't even a big enough character in the game he is featured to have his own wiki page, took some rooting to find out who he was even once I knew the game series he was in, it's just such an odd batch they've chosen to be the front men for the system :S I'm pretty sure Spike is on the cover of Ape Escape.  Some examples: (Spike is the guy with the spike-y hair.  Do you get the pun in his name? tehe)  (Spike is also on this cover)  (Spike is also on this cover)

He didn't say "on the cover", he said "cover character"...

Gee, guys, let it go...

Same thing with Pokémon Trainer! He was never on the cover of any pokémon game, yet, he is the character.
Pretty sure the Monkeys are in the game, just like the Pokémon are.

Spike SHOULD with capital letters be in this game.

I'm 100% not saying anything about Ape escape not being a well known playstation brand... my grief is proved by your pic, those monkeys... the ones from ape escape are incredibly iconic of the psone and ps2.... that guy who is on the roster for this game, is not those monkeys :D

I equate it to being similar to Olimar from Pikmin.  Pikmins are the focus of the game, and the main part of the cover.  Olimar is the main character, and a small part of the cover.  In a character-based brawler, Olimar is the character who represents the Pikmin franchise but his moves include pikmins.  This is almost exactly the same case as with Spike.

How important is a cover, in any case?

Should Final Fantasy VII's character be a meteor?  Should Metal Gear Solid's character be the tagline 'Tactical Espionage Action'?

Although being the 'cover character' helps exposure, it's far from the be-all-end-all.