>>718477380
>That means no new Smash game this gen

No, it means Sakurai isn't working on it. The fact the game of the games division asked him to make Air Ride and not Smash, knowing there is a new console coming up, means they didn't want him making Smash. It's still being made, just internally.

>Mario Kart 8 Booster Pass ends Nov 2023
>Namco puts out job postings for a 3D action game with a 2D side view
>Dec 2023, after not getting updated in more than a year, Ultimate gets updated with new spirits events
>Nintendo updated their trademark for Smash, among other titles, in 2024
>https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2024/10/nintendo-cooks-up-new-food-and-accommodation-trademarks-for-pikmin-smash-bros-and-more

Its probably coming 2026 or 2027, but its coming.

>>717372197
Mario Kart absolutely leaned into more of the Nintendo stuff after the game released. The DLC included two of their biggest IPs plus tracks from FZero and Excitebikes and Deluxe adding Splatoon. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe defiantly marketed the Nintendo characters (go look at the boxart for the game). The reason for including Nintendo characters in Mario Kart is the same for why Smash went from Nintendo to all of gaming over a single title. Nintendo didn't think their core titles could sell on their own so they started doing more Crossover stuff. Even Mario Maker did with adding a ton of cross over sprites into the game that included basically everything. Splatoon also had a crossover with an anime. All of that stuff pretty much stopped once Nintendo was on top again. Mario Maker only kept Link and Mario Kart removed all the Nintendo characters. There wasn't a need to have all this other stuff now that the IP could stand on its own. The same is true for Smash. Why bother with all the licensed content (and pay more for it) when Nintendo's brands are doing perfectly fine on their own and Mario being on the cover is good enough? Nintendo doesn't like crossovers normally and they sure as shit don't care if some people on the internet will be upset that Joker and Terry are gone. If anything, Nintendo would rather use Smash as a vehicle for their own title's rather than one for SEGA or Square or Microsoft.

>>714929716
That's kind of my thinking anon. They went from being focused on Nintendo to adding Cloud and holding a ballot for the next game

>>712448982
I wouldn't be surprised if this is a big reason he is making Air Riders and not Smash. Nintendo probably lost a fuck ton of money on Ultimate. Nintendo would have been better off paying him a fee/salary than giving him a cut of the 30 million sales. It probably made more sense when the best selling Smash game was 13 million. It would be a big reason to bring it in house which I expect is what they are doing.