PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale was announced earlier this year to lukewarm reception. It was hard to deny the resemblance to another well known “smash-up”, but Sony remained positive about this game. Within minutes of the announcement, countless forums across the web predicted and judged the most likely character additions while hoping for their favorites, but more importantly, discussion was going on, which was the key to the success of such a game.

With the revealing of most of the roster, the obvious inclusions are mostly out of the way leaving much room for fan speculation. Often on the forums, “This person has to be in” or “No (insert character name), no buy” topics appear. The developers may have a plan set out with no room for additions – other than DLC – but the more fans cry, the higher the chance for disappointment. Obviously, the roster is made to please the general public, but if the fans had every say in the matter – which they want – this game would probably fail….hard.

Here are 5 reasons why developers have their own agenda and should stay that way.

 

5. The Roster Would Be Endless

If developers were to please everyone, the character selection screen would be 500 pages long. No one ever complains for a roster being too big, but everyone complains when it’s too small. Even when a fighting game has a well-balanced cast with completely unique movesets, quantity will always overcome quality to the average gamer.

With a restricted number of slots, hate is everywhere to be found. From a character being a “waste of a slot” to “too many clones”, restriction brings out the ugly in rabid fans, but it is more than necessary. How much space would this game take if every character that was requested more than twice had a spot. Too many characters means too many balance issues, inevitable clones, and a game that would crash your PS3.

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