List of rumors: Difference between revisions

A '''rumor''' is a statement or story that gains traction within popular discourse but lacks sufficient verifiable evidence to be confirmed or denied. Like many other games, the ''{{b|Super Smash Bros.|series}}'' series has had various rumors spread about it, usually through the internet, and sometimes magazines. Most of the time, rumors claimed to contain information concerning [[List of Super Smash Bros. series characters#Playable character|playable character]]s, though rumors concerning other aspects of gameplay, such as development scheduling, can also appear.

 

Rumors typically have no more than hearsay as evidence, though some can contain true information, or even fabricated information that coincidentally becomes true with later developments. Rumors can be proven true or false on arrival via fact-checking or by waiting for relevant information from official sources, though the vast majority are proven false. That being said, rumors that are later proven true tend to receive concrete evidence later on, shifting it into the realm of [[leak]]s. Some false rumors are intentionally created to give the creator attention or just cause commotion, with some going as far as to fabricate evidence, with instances of this nature being defined as a hoax.

 

While rumors about the ''Smash'' series are innumerable, this article documents only especially notable rumors, whether for being well known and widely spread, for being from a notable source, or for other noteworthy reasons worth mentioning.

Many character selection screens for ''Melee'' also made the rounds, though these screens were less credible due to the ability to quickly distribute images on the internet being unfeasible during ''Melee's'' release; by then, all the unlockables had been well-known. Some of these fake rosters, however, were merely made as jokes, including [http://web.archive.org/web/20070322232951/http://www.geocities.com/dewluigi2002/biggie.jpg a particularly famous image featuring over 108 characters and eight player slots]. The inability to easily customize the character roster for the original game has prevented fake rosters from appearing, as there are no empty spaces, and the game was released before the internet was widespread.

While extremely common, fake character rosters are relatively easy to debunk. Particularly low-quality rosters will often use art from various other sources, violating the trend in the series where all art is original to the games. For example, in the image to the right, Luigi's image is a mirrored version of [[mariowiki:File:Luigi Artwork - Super Mario 64 DS.png|his official artwork]] from ''{{s|mariowiki|Super Mario 64 DS}}''; adding to this, the hoaxed image features both three-dimensional models (such as for the aforementioned Luigi and the ''F-Zero'' character {{s|fzerowiki|Black Shadow}}) and two-dimensional illustrations (such as for [[Marth]] and ''Fire Emblem'' character {{s|fireemblemwiki|Micaiah}}). Furthermore, hoaxers have sometimes made various oversights while producing such images. A minor hoax, for instance, claimed to feature the character Agnès from {{uvm3|Bravely Default}} as a playable character, but the [[Media:AgnesSSB4rumor.jpg|faked images]] improperly spelt her name as "Agn'''é'''s", and her character portrait was different between the [[Media:AgnesRumorWiiU.jpg|two images given]].<ref>http://tieba.baidu.com/p/3346382609</ref>

3. Notability of rumors should involve either having significant speculation and/or spread in the community (such as large threads on SmashBoards or coverage by notable gaming-related news sites), or have a notable characteristic that differentiates them from other rumors. An example of the former would be the Grinch Leak from Ultimate (which not only caused widespread debate throughout SmashBoards and social media sites about its legitimacy up to the release of Ultimate, but was also covered by mainstream gaming sites), while an example of the latter would be the Lucina rumor for Smash 4 (as it was the first faked leak that utilize mods, which would become a common trend for faking leaks of varying effort).

A popular rumor about ''Smash 64'' that came around long after its release was that several characters were planned to be playable in the game, but cut due to time and/or memory constraints. The characters most often rumored to have been planned but cut are [[Peach]], [[Wario]], [[Pit]], and [[Meowth]]. A page on the official ''Smash 64'' website claims that [[Bowser]], [[King Dedede]], and [[Mewtwo]] were indeed planned to be playable in ''Smash 64'', but the reason for their exclusion is not specifically stated.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20150428102241/http://games.yahoo.co.jp/qa/detail?qid=1090755405</ref> Additionally, [[Marth]] was planned but cut due to time constraints, according to an interview from a book titled ''Making of Fire Emblem: 25 Years of Development Secrets''.<ref>[http://www.sourcegaming.info/2015/12/13/sakurai-fe25/ Source Gaming: "Sakurai Interview: Fire Emblem 25th Anniversary"]</ref> No sources, however, have been proven to support Pit, Meowth, Peach, Wario, or any other characters as having ever been planned to be playable in the game.

3. Notability of rumors should involve either having significant speculation and/or spread in the community (such as large threads on SmashBoards or coverage by notable gaming-related news sites), or have a notable characteristic that differentiates them from other rumors. An example of the former would be the Grinch Leak from Ultimate (which not only caused widespread debate throughout SmashBoards and social media sites about its legitimacy up to the release of Ultimate, but was also covered by mainstream gaming sites), while an example of the latter would be the Lucina rumor for Smash 4 (as it was the first faked leak that utilize mods, which would become a common trend for faking leaks of varying effort).

The Toad rumor, initially posted on [http://web.archive.org/web/20090831060903/http://geocities.com/demeterpictures/secret.html a small Geocities site] in November of 2002, stated that Toad could be unlocked as a playable character in ''Melee'' after obtaining a perfect score during the [[Ending Credits|credits mini-game]], which is played after completing any one-player mode; after hitting all the credits, the player would then have to clear Adventure Mode (with a requirement of "easily defeating" the {{SSBM|Yoshi}}s in the {{b|Mushroom Kingdom|Adventure Mode}} stage), after which they would be able to unlock him. The site also gave several fake screenshots depicting Toad in various in-game scenarios, propagating the rumor; it came to the point where the images had become more well-known than the site and the supposed method to unlock him, with explanations sometimes varying strongly from the original.

Long after ''Melee''{{'}}s release in May of 2012, a NeoGAF user named cednym would post information about planned content for ''Melee'' that was [[Unused content (SSBM)|scrapped]], which he supposedly found in old [[Famitsu]] issues from 2002. Among the claims were several characters being planned for inclusion, which were: [[King Dedede]] being the character next inline for inclusion if [[Masahiro Sakurai]] could not receive permission from [[Intelligent Systems]] to use {{SSBM|Marth}}, as well as being considered for inclusion in the place of the six [[clone]]s; that Sakurai considered a [[Pokémon Trainer]] character using the second generation starter Pokémon, but there wasn't enought time and resources for such a labor intensive character; [[Wario]] was briefly considered as the {{SSBM|Mario}} clone, with low speed and high attack power, but Sakurai felt that Wario deserved better; [[Wolf]] was initially slotted as {{SSBM|Fox}}'s clone, but Sakurai felt he would be perceived as "a grey-colored Fox", so he went with {{SSBM|Falco}} for his more distinct appearance; and Leif from ''Fire Emblem: Thracia 776'' was initially slotted as Marth's clone, but after Intelligent Systems shown Sakurai a preview of the upcoming ''Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade'', he thought Roy would be a better fit, with his fire properties making him stand out.<ref>https://www.neogaf.com/threads/next-super-smash-bros-discussion-thread-community-edition.448761/page-151#post-37915502</ref> While cednym provided no evidence to legitimize his post, these claims would proliferate within the ''Smash'' community as accepted information about ''Melee''{{'}}s development for several years after. In 2016, [[Source Gaming]] would attempt to find these old Famitsu translations or any other information to support these claims, in their endeavor to chronicle all characters that were ever planned or seriously considered for inclusion in any ''Smash'' game for their "''The Definitive List of Unused Fighters in Smash''" article. However, they could not find anything that corroborated any of cednym's claims, in fact they would only find information that contradicted it, such as Sakurai confirming that Wario was the character next inline for inclusion, not King Dedede, as well as Sakurai confirming that he wouldn't have been able to add a single unique newcomer in the place of the six clones, contradicting the claim that Dedede could have been included in their place. Eventually, {{Sm|PushDustin}}, the admin of Source Gaming at the time, would contact cednym directly for verification of his claims, where he would then admit that his post was entirely falsified.<ref>https://sourcegaming.info/2016/04/29/duflupdate/</ref>

3. Notability of rumors should involve either having significant speculation and/or spread in the community (such as large threads on SmashBoards or coverage by notable gaming-related news sites), or have a notable characteristic that differentiates them from other rumors. An example of the former would be the Grinch Leak from Ultimate (which not only caused widespread debate throughout SmashBoards and social media sites about its legitimacy up to the release of Ultimate, but was also covered by mainstream gaming sites), while an example of the latter would be the Lucina rumor for Smash 4 (as it was the first faked leak that utilize mods, which would become a common trend for faking leaks of varying effort).

Shortly after ''Brawl''{{'}}s announcement, a rumor claimed that in a radio interview, Masahiro Sakurai confirmed that [[Ridley]], a [[Toon Link|cel-shaded Link]], and [[Bowser Jr.]] would be playable characters. Coinciding with this was the rumor of [[Young Link]], the [[Ice Climbers]], and [[Mr. Game & Watch]] being dropped. This was proven to be false; while {{SSBB|Toon Link}} does replace Young Link in ''Brawl'' as the second Link, Ridley appears as a [[boss]] instead of a playable character, Bowser Jr. only appears as a [[sticker]] and [[trophy]], and Mr. Game & Watch and the Ice Climbers returned as playable characters in ''Brawl''.

During the development of ''Brawl'', multiple rumors suggested that a character from ''Animal Crossing'', such as the generic playable character (termed an "Animal Crosser") or [[Tom Nook]], would be playable in ''Brawl''. A statement was reportedly made by Sakurai on the matter, which claimed that "On one hand, they have an innocent charm to them that could be ruined if they were in a fighting game"; the veracity of this statement, however, is disputed. Despite the lack of a playable character, ''Animal Crossing'' is strongly represented in ''Brawl'' by [[List of SSBB Music (Animal Crossing series)|some music tracks]], trophies, stickers, [[Mr. Resetti|an Assist Trophy]], [[Smashville|a stage]], and numerous cameos on said stage.

Shortly after ''Brawl'' was released in America, [https://web.archive.org/web/20080703174210/http://press-nintendo.110mb.com/article-jsp-id-14788.htm a newspost] appeared on the internet, claiming that ''Brawl'' would feature four downloadable characters and two downloadable stages, as well as a new Wii Channel of "Wii Want More". The discovery of [[Beta elements (SSBB)#Scrapped characters|multiple unused character files]] present in the game also added credence to the rumor, under the assumption that the empty files rendered it easier to create add-on content.

The rumor was quickly proven as false; Masahiro Sakurai himself stated that downloadable content would never be coming for ''Brawl'', as the Wii's flash-based internal hardware is incapable of patching or otherwise modifying a game based on a downloaded file. The supposed release date of 13 May 2008 also passed without a "Wii Want More" channel being released or announced. Additionally, in a vein similar to the Toad rumor, the site was hosted on 110MB, a hosting site where anyone on the internet can publish content. However, [[downloadable content]] would become a prominent part of subsequent games, starting with ''Super Smash Bros. 4''.

3. Notability of rumors should involve either having significant speculation and/or spread in the community (such as large threads on SmashBoards or coverage by notable gaming-related news sites), or have a notable characteristic that differentiates them from other rumors. An example of the former would be the Grinch Leak from Ultimate (which not only caused widespread debate throughout SmashBoards and social media sites about its legitimacy up to the release of Ultimate, but was also covered by mainstream gaming sites), while an example of the latter would be the Lucina rumor for Smash 4 (as it was the first faked leak that utilize mods, which would become a common trend for faking leaks of varying effort).

Shortly after the official announcement of the fourth ''Super Smash Bros.'', an image circulated around the internet detailing what appeared to be an advertisement or design document that was said to be from the official Nintendo headquarters in Japan for "''Super Smash Bros. Universe''"; multiple imageboards worked to translate the document, leading to some supposed preliminary idea for the games.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20130527174817/https://tgdaily.com/games-and-entertainment-brief/58593-wii-u-game-super-smash-bros-universe-leaked</ref> Sakurai, however, stated that he had not begun working on the new ''Smash Bros.'' at the time and was focusing on ''Kid Icarus Uprising''; the documents were later finally disproven when it was demonstrated that the game's title would not be ''Super Smash Bros. Universe''.

While this rumor was false, {{SSB4|Lucina}} would later be confirmed to be a playable character on July 14th, 2014, alongside {{SSB4|Robin}}, over one year after the faked image was first posted. Expectedly, she did not at all resemble her appearance in the hoaxed image, further establishing that the image was a hoax.

On 22 January 2014, two supposedly leaked images of [[Palutena]] in the 3DS version of ''Super Smash Bros. 4'' began to circulate on the internet. The veracity of the images were immediately questioned, though some observers noted that the model and poses used by Palutena were not seen in any previous photo, and unlike the Lucina rumor, no hacks available for ''Brawl'' could replicate the image seen. Of particular note is that after the two images were released, a series of [[Media:Smash.4 - Viridi Stage Hazard.jpg|''Kid Icarus'']]-[[Media:Kid Icarus WiiU Stage.jpg|related]] [[Media:Smash.4 - Colliding Projectiles.jpg|images]] were released on Miiverse, leading some observers to speculate that Sakurai was aware of the Palutena images.

After E3 2014 passed, with there still being no visual evidence of Chunky Kong despite the tens of hours of new gameplay footage being seen, the Chunky Kong Assist Trophy was generally regarded as a false report, though it was not known if it was intentionally falsified information, or inadvertently mistaken with another gameplay element. The rumor was ultimately proven completely false after both the Japanese release of {{for3ds}} and the American release of {{forwiiu}}, where Chunky Kong was still absent. About a month after ''Smash 4''{{'}}s release on Wii U, the poster who first reported the Chunky Kong Assist Trophy [http://smashboards.com/threads/k-rools-kremling-kutthroats-request-the-king-in-your-smash-club-nintendo-forms-today.324259/page-516#post-18244015 confessed to fabricating the claim]; he initially intended to use the false piece of information to help himself catch fake leaks, as well as see how many people would repeat his seemingly outlandish claim.

On February 14, 2015, multiple pictures taken of Ubisoft's Rayman supposedly in ''Smash 4'' were posted onto 4chan. The images were of Rayman's character select screen icon, his render, his character unlock splash art, and the main menu of ''Super Smash Bros. for Wii U'' with a new sub menu for a shop. Several hours later, video footage of Rayman's icon in the character select screen being highlighted was posted onto YouTube, but it was later taken down by the uploader. Mewtwo could also be seen above Rayman in the video. A similarly-updated character select screen from the 3DS version also surfaced. Many observers initially believed the hoax, since the images and the video were seemingly error-free, were of reasonably high quality, had renders not seen in any official material, and featured video footage, which was considered near-impossible to fake. This rumor also lined up with a [[#Rayman "leak"|previous rumor]] with similar information.

Despite these statements, Tamaki stated that Shovel Knight was still on the way according to his source, and was expected to come around the end of October or the beginning of November. The rumor was ultimately debunked following the [[Nintendo Direct#Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U - Final Video Presentation (December 15, 2015)|final DLC announcements]] on December 15, 2015, where Shovel Knight failed to make an appearance of any kind. In 2018, the source came out and explained that he had the Shovel Knight amiibo leaked to him, wrongly "made the leap", as there were only Smash Bros amiibo available at the time, and gave Tamaki the info.<ref>https://www.twitter.com/Toadsanime/status/978650176847056897</ref>

3. Notability of rumors should involve either having significant speculation and/or spread in the community (such as large threads on SmashBoards or coverage by notable gaming-related news sites), or have a notable characteristic that differentiates them from other rumors. An example of the former would be the Grinch Leak from Ultimate (which not only caused widespread debate throughout SmashBoards and social media sites about its legitimacy up to the release of Ultimate, but was also covered by mainstream gaming sites), while an example of the latter would be the Lucina rumor for Smash 4 (as it was the first faked leak that utilize mods, which would become a common trend for faking leaks of varying effort).

===Skull Kid/Dixie Kong/Isaac rumors===

Loz18, [[List of leaks#Loz18|who had correctly predicted several pieces of content in the E3 2018 and August 2018 Nintendo Directs]] (with the content that was not announced in August appearing in the game anyways), has made several posts (such as [https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/234547-super-smash-bros-ultimate/76883130 here]) stating that [[Skull Kid]] is probably playable. A few days after the Direct, he closed his GameFAQs account, but not before [https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/234547-super-smash-bros-ultimate/76904388 stating on Twitter] that [[Dixie Kong]] has a high chance of being playable, and [https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/234547-super-smash-bros-ultimate/76911077 possibly] [[Isaac]] (these tweets have since been deleted), though he would retract his statements on Isaac on a [https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/gfaqssb/images/2/22/Loz18leakssmashinside.png Discord server]. However, none of his new predictions came true, aside from his final statement on Isaac.

Shortly after the reveal of ''Devil May Cry 5'' at E3 2018, a 4chan user posted [https://boards.fireden.net/v/thread/424869809/#q424872463 a thread] claiming to have information related to the game and several other projects related to the franchise. Namely, that Dante, the protagonist of the series, would be a playable character in ''Ultimate.''  Throughout the year, several of the poster's claims would be verified, such as several story details, the existence of a training mode and the way that the character Nero purchases upgrades. Perhaps adding to the leak's credibility, a Netflix series based on the franchise was announced later that year, just as the poster had claimed. Users would go on to discover that [https://twitter.com/pg_kamiya/status/700571957658423297 a poll run by Hideki Kamiya], the original creator of the ''Devil May Cry'' and {{uv|Bayonetta}} franchises, asked fans which version of Dante they'd prefer to see collaborate with Bayonetta. Users pointed out that the date of the poll, early 2016, aligns with the period of time which Sakurai had stated early development on ''Ultimate'' had begun, and that the version of Dante that won the poll was the same version that the 4chan poster had claimed would be in the game. In early August, Matt Walker, the producer of Devil May Cry 5, [https://imgur.com/LVArqNC posted a suspicious tweet] that seemed to allude to something related to the Nintendo Direct that would air during that week. Later in the year, [https://www.reddit.com/r/DevilMayCry/comments/9i7inm/hideaki_itsuno_hideki_kamiya_together_at_tgs_2018/ Kamiya would meet up with Hideaki Itsuno, the current director of the Devil May Cry series] at TGS 2018, adding fuel to the rumors. Eventually, [https://i.redd.it/w70jqikzqsh11.png the rumor] had circulated enough that Walker [https://twitter.com/gypsyOtoko/status/1032867906839879680 took to Twitter to debunk Dante's presence in Smash].

As both ''Ultimate'' and ''Devil May Cry 5'' released, with Dante absent from the former and the latter being inconsistent with much of the original 4chan post, it's very likely that the original poster simply made several very lucky guesses that were bolstered by a series of coincidences.

On June 28, 2021, Dante was announced as a Mii Swordfighter costume, which was released alongside Challenger Pack 10 the following day.

On October 24th, 2018, an image quickly circulated around the internet of the apparent final version of ''Ultimate''{{'}}s character banner; in it, [[Isaac]], [[Banjo]] & [[Kazooie]], [[Shadow the Hedgehog]], [[Ken Masters]], the Chorus Kids from {{uv|Rhythm Heaven}}, [[Geno]], and the [[Mach Rider]] can be seen. Images of the banner were apparently posted from an unknown artist's {{s|wikipedia|Snapchat}}, and quickly spread across the internet, before getting deleted by the original poster. It seems that the post was ''intended'' to be a leak, as a caption in the image reads "nique ninteno{{sic}} mdrrr", which translates from French as "fuck <!--Do not asterisk this out. SmashWiki is not censored.--> ninteno{{sic}} lolll" ("mdr" in French is short for "mort de rire", or "dying of laughter", an equivalent to the English "laughing out loud" or "lol"). The validity of the pictures of the banner was difficult to disprove, as, much like the [[ESRB leak]], renders of the new characters could not be found elsewhere on the internet.

The leak has been dubbed "'''the Grinch leak'''", as a previously unseen render of the {{s|wikipedia|Grinch}} can be seen in the bottom right corner in one of the pictures, and another render of the Grinch with his dog, Max, can be seen at the top of another picture. The particular renders are promotional{{fact}} material for the then-upcoming 2018 film ''{{iw|wikipedia|The Grinch|film}}'', which seemingly supported the leak's validity, as few believed that a constructor of a fake banner would also put in the time and effort to associate it with an unrelated film. A cropping error on the banner and some stray green pixels also existed where Isaac's location was in the Grinch leak, seemingly further supporting its validity.

In the Nintendo Direct on November 1, 2018, Ken and Incineroar were revealed as the final fighters in the base roster, contradicting the banner's rumored characters. Shadow and Isaac were shown in the direct, but as Assist Trophies, while Mach Rider, Geno, and the Chorus Kids were later revealed as Spirits. Additionally, Ken's artwork is slightly different than the leaked banner's<ref>[https://i.imgur.com/qm4vHcm.png]</ref> and in a completely different location. Banjo and Kazooie are the only characters in the leak that didn't make an appearance in the base game in any shape or form, although they were revealed as the third DLC fighter in the Fighters Pass Vol. 1 on June 11th, 2019.

On March 12, 2019, it was discovered that there were 16 character slots found for Adventure Mode, one of which was currently being used for {{SSBU|Piranha Plant}}. While the next five are known to be part of the [[Downloadable content (SSBU)|Fighters Pass]] (including {{SSBU|Joker}}), the other ten are unknown. This led to speculation that there would be future DLC characters beyond the Fighters Pass. While a [[Nintendo Direct]] on September 4th, 2019 would confirm that there would be more DLC characters, later in September 24th, 2019, Source Gaming released a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjqkmtSbVWc video] with help from decompiler jam1garner which they discovered that Joker took a placeholder slot just like Piranha Plant, but {{SSBU|Banjo and Kazooie}} and the {{SSBU|Hero}} did not take a slot, suggesting that two more fighters were added later in development of DLC. A total of 12 DLC fighters were released for the game, leaving 6 slots unaccounted for. The purpose of these extra slots remain unknown.

On August 30th, 2019, a YouTube user by the name of IAmShifty posted a [https://youtu.be/JcwSKSy-nIY video] claiming that Ryu Hayabusa from the ''{{s|wikipedia|Ninja Gaiden}}'' series would be joining the Fighters Pass for ''[[Super Smash Bros. Ultimate]]''. According to the user, Ryu would be the fourth character to be announced for the Fighters Pass. Previously, he had supposedly correctly [https://youtu.be/TKe4M3VuN6o?t=125 leaked] {{SSBU|Isabelle}}, {{SSBU|Ken}}, {{SSBU|Incineroar}} and {{SSBU|Piranha Plant}} as playable characters, in addition to [[Marx]] appearing as a boss character in the game.

IAmShifty's claim was proven false on the September 4th, 2019 Nintendo Direct when {{SSBU|Terry}} was revealed to be the fourth fighter in the Fighters Pass instead of Ryu Hayabusa. On October 15th, 2019 IAmShifty reiterated by [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFiLAWUhehk claiming] that Ryu Hayabusa would be the fifth character in the Fighters Pass. This lined up with a leaker called Brew Elfen, who also claimed that Ryu would be the fifth character and who had [https://facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=726541694366622&id=100010323940226&_rdr previously leaked] Piranha Plant on November 1st, 2018. These claims were proven false by the January 16, 2020 presentation when {{SSBU|Byleth}} was revealed instead, and as of the conclusion of Fighters Pass 2 with {{SSBU|Sora}}'s announcement, Ryu Hayabusa nor any ''Ninja Gaiden'' content appeared in ''Ultimate''.

On October 5, 2020, Twitter user [https://twitter.com/TheNintendata @TheNintendata] posted about a supposed leaked document from Activision that contained a five-year plan for the ''{{s|wikipedia|Crash Bandicoot}}'' franchise. Following plans to see the ''{{s|wikipedia|Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy}}'' on other platforms; ''{{s|wikipedia|Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled}}''; its Grand Prix service; ''Crash Bandicoot: On The Run!''; and ''{{s|wikipedia|Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time}}'' released, this document was rumored to include the addition of Crash Bandicoot to ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' in [https://www.dexerto.com/smash/leak-claims-crash-bandicoot-will-join-smash-ultimate-in-2021-1428075/ 2021 as downloadable content].

The five-year ''Crash Bandicoot'' plan had first been mentioned on January 19, 2018, by the European publication [https://issuu.com/maxpublishing/docs/lsb_spring_2018 Licensing Source Book], which "covers the entire licensing industry." Although specific details were not revealed at the time, on page 97 the publication revealed a statement from Max Arguile, Licensing Manager of GB Eye saying, "Looking ahead to 2018 Max picks out ''Crash Bandicoot'' as one to watch: "The new game has had a huge success at retail with no marketing spend. Next, it will be going broader (Switch and PC), and there will be another game in 2019. Activision have a five-year plan for this and GB Eye is delighted to be fully on board for all products." [https://www.destructoid.com/stories/rumor-activision-has-a-five-year-plan-for-crash-bandicoot-involves-switch-486327.phtml Destructoid] corroborated the story from Licensing Source Book on February 5, 2018.