​

Masahiro Sakurai, creator of the Super Smash Bros. series, has announced publicly today that Smash for Switch - the newest iteration of the game - will be entirely DLC, or downloadable content. That’s not to say that there isn’t a disk for the game, but it’s just that in order to actually play it you’ll now have to pay a considerable amount extra.



“Players won’t be able to bypass the title screen without paying sufficient funds," Sakurai told Smashboards in an interview he agreed to do for some reason.



Stages, items, soundtracks, trophies, sound FX’s and even a date/time widget, Sakurai says, are all only available as DLC. But perhaps the most impressive change is the “absence of the whole character roster” from the disk itself, with Nintendo opting instead to adopt an entirely DLC system for its playable characters.



Sakurai told us that “removing all of the characters from the game disk” freed up space that the team could then use to “add in specialized in-game messages” asking the user to buy DLC characters.

Smash for Switch’s new multiplayer system will require the user to buy 3 separate DLC packages: the For Glory Bundle Unlocked Unlocker, the For Glory Bundle Unlocked, and finally the actual For Glory Bundle, which in fact the user has only a 25℅ chance of gaining access to multiplayer before otherwise having to buy all 3 Bundle's again.



Additional steps Nintendo is taking to create an unrivaled fan experience is their new and improved Gamecube adapters, which Sakurai says will revolutionize the gaming industry. The adapters, which require the user to insert a 25¢ fee before usage, “appeal to the retro gamer inside all of us," according to Sakurai.



The aforementioned ingenious controller adapter​



But why even change the adapter at all? What about the other countries that don’t even use US currency? These are probably questions that most of us have, and Sakurai was quick to answer them.



“We felt like this was the change that Smash needed. A quirky way to play your favorite game [while giving us your money]," he said. “As for non-US countries, we will be offering a palpable DLC in which the customer can order US quarters.”



Sakurai concluded by telling us that he is excited to tell us that all of the extra charges in the form of DLC and coin slots are “vital to the integrity [of Smash]” and that they are “well worth the cumulative price of $250”. Time will tell if Nintendo’s new ambitious business model bears any fruit, but people will probably buy into it anyway.