The final DLC fighter for Super Smash Bros Ultimate has been revealed, and it’s none
other than Sora, of Kingdom Hearts fame.
It’s no secret that Sora is a popular choice with fans.
He’s also popular both with the developers at Nintendo and at Sora Ltd (the name is a
coincidence, apparently).
Even so, according to Masahiro Sakurai, getting approval to include Sora in Smash was incredibly
difficult.
He said: “Having Sora join was a huge undertaking,
but one that everyone involved was excited to take on.
It’s fair to say that his addition required more co-ordination than other fighters.”
We’re never going to get a full account of all the negotiations that took place behind
the scenes to make this collaboration happen.
That said, industry insiders have hinted at what the problem has been: the intellectual
property rights for Sora are complicated to say the least.
Nintendo’s relationship with Kingdom Hearts developer Square Enix is healthy, hence the
inclusion of Sephiroth in Smash.
The problem with Sora is a third important party: the Walt Disney corporation.
Disney and Square Enix had a difficult time arriving on the direction for the collaboration
that became Kingdom Hearts.
Unfortunately, both companies were coming at the game with very different intentions.
Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura wanted to create something that would rival Super
Mario 64.
He was fascinated by the game’s complex 3D camera, and he wanted to make a similar
game.
His colleagues were quick to point out the flaw in this plan: Mario 64’s success was
due in large part to Mario’s existing popularity.
Said Nomura: “Somebody even said ‘The only way you
could do it is with characters that are as well known as Disney's’.
That really stuck in my head, so when I heard we could be working with Disney characters,
I naturally jumped at the chance.”
Nomura’s plan, then, was for a completely original character who could hop between various
Disney worlds, meeting familiar faces along the way, borrowing Disney’s brand appeal
to create something fresh and new.
This was not what Disney wanted.
The Walt Disney corporation has toyed many times with video games based on their intellectual
property, and regularly tries different strategies for making this happen.
Sometimes, Disney will license out their brands to third party developers, but this is often
a gamble, and there are concerns that poor games will tarnish their intellectual property.
Square Enix had a proven track record, but Disney wanted them to do something very formulaic.
Said Nomura: “They appeared to believe that we would
make whatever they wanted us to make and came up with rather specific requests such as,
‘We'd like the game to feature this character’.
They were really excited, explaining their ideas...
To be honest, though, I wasn't really interested in any of them.”
Nomura finally convinced Disney to trust his vision for the game.
They were willing to do this largely because of Square Enix’s proven track record.
Because of this collaboration, Sora was created – but he occupied a nebulous space on the
fringe of the Disney canon.
He was a Disney character, but he also wasn’t, as he’d been created by Square Enix.
To this day, Disney can still be very squeamish about video games.
According to former Disney Interactive general manager Graham Hopper:
“Some licensees, like Square, invest significantly in quality and produce fantastic product,
and other licensees, not so much.”
Nevertheless, it has been clear to Masahiro Sakurai and Nintendo for a long time that
Sora is a very popular choice for Smash.
The challenge has always been getting Disney’s approval.
Said Sakurai: “I knew the Sora was the most requested
fighter.
Six years ago, when Super Smash Bros for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U was out, there was a poll called
Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot.
The top fighter for the most requested new fighter was Sora.”
Sakurai and Satoru Iwata agreed not to share this information with the public, for fear
that Nintendo fans might start annoying Disney with requests for Sora’s inclusion in Smash.
Nevertheless, according to Game Informer’s Imran Kahn, Nintendo did approach Disney Japan
behind doors.
Things did not go well.
Said Kahn: “They absolutely approached Disney about
it once.
Disney Japan specifically [said no].”
Take that with a pinch of salt as it comes from an industry insider rather than an official
source, by the way.
We’ll likely never know exactly what convinced Disney to finally agree to a partnership with
Nintendo, but we do know from Sakurai that it took a great deal of collaboration.
Speaking of the new Smash fighter, he said: “With support for this collaboration, Sora
joining the battle has become a reality.
… “I’m just in awe.
We had so much co-operation, and because of that, we were able to have Sora join Super
Smash Bros.
Ultimate.
We’re very grateful.”
The moral of the story is that collaboration can create wonderful things.
Sora would not exist if Square Enix and Disney hadn’t collaborated, and Sora could not
have joined the Smash Bros rother without everyone involved working together.