While Sony has been aggressively pursuing third-party support for its upcoming PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale, Nintendo may be considering to go the opposite route for the next Smash Bros. The addition of Snake and Sonic to the roster in Brawl was heralded by fans, but Smash Bros director Masahiro Sakurai notes that he doesn't want to focus on adding too many non-Nintendo characters.

"I think Snake and Sonic joining were fantastic. It made many fans happy, and it broadened the Smash Bros arena," he said. "However, introducing more non-Nintendo characters willy-nilly will lose the focus of the game, so I also recognize the need to narrow it down."

His comments echo previous concerns that the roster had become too big in the previous game.

While Sakurai wants to stay focused on Nintendo's large library of first-party characters, there's still hope that third-party characters will make appearances in the upcoming mascot brawler. With the game now being developed by Namco Bandai, there's a chance that characters from the Tekken, Tales, or Gundam series could sneak their way into the game. "That question was one of the most frequently asked questions we got when we announced the project," Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada told NowGamer.

Little else is known about the much-awaiting fighting sequel. However, franchise fans can take comfort in knowing that the mechanics won't change much in the next iteration. "The game system itself is complete, so we don't want to make it 3D or introduce complicated controls just for the sake of it," Sakurai told IGN.