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Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC likely delayed by coronavirus

Director Masahiro Sakurai confirms work has been affected

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC likely delayed by coronavirus

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's Fighter Pass downloadable content will likely be delayed, according to series director Masahiro Sakurai.

The Nintendo veteran confirmed in his monthly column for Famitsu (via Ryokutya2089, translated by PushDustIn) that work on the project has been affected as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

As a result, it's unlikely all of the new Smash Bros. fighters will be released during the same time as originally planned.

Six characters

The second Fighter Pass was announced in January following the final character reveal of Fire Emblem: Three Houses' Byleth.

The first Fighter Pass included five characters with many appearing from third-party companies. Most notably, Nintendo partnered with Microsoft to bring the highly requested Banjo-Kazooie to the game.

Sakurai-san subsequently confirmed that the second Fighter Pass would add six new characters to the roster and that all new fighters have already been selected by Nintendo.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate has achieved 15.7 million in sales, surpassing Street Fighter II’s 15.5 million to make it the best-selling fighting game of all time.

We recently spoke to TipsWorks founder Yang Yang on pivoting from Super Smash Bros. to Dark Souls during the making of Pascal's Wager.


Deputy Editor

Matthew Forde is the deputy editor at PocketGamer.biz and also a member of the Pocket Gamer Podcast. You can find him on Twitter @MattForde64 talking about stats, data and everything pop culture related - particularly superheroes.