Sakurai all but deconfirms Overwatch’s Tracer coming to Smash Ultimate

The possibility of an Overwatch hero coming to Super Smash Bros Ultimate as a DLC fighter may have just taken a major hit after comments from the series creator Masahiro Sakurai.

In a recent Famitsu column, translated by journalist PushDustIn, Sakurai talked about what games he’s been playing lately and for anyone expecting Tracer to blink into battle, these words will sting.

While he’s been playing some new and classic games including Apex Legends, which he has been enjoying, the same can’t be said about Blizzard’s hero-based FPS.

According to PushDustIn’s translation, the Smash creator hasn’t been playing that much Overwatch at all.

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On the surface, this may not seem like anything too major and it at least shows that he’s played some Overwatch. However, Sakurai has a history of playing games featuring a character that will be added before adding them to Smash.

For instance, when DLC fighter 5 Byleth was in development, he played an early version of Fire Emblem Three Houses.

Plus, according to a 2006 Source Gaming translation, Sakurai talked about the difficulty he faced when adding Sonic to Brawl.

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“If I gave him the same super-mobility he possesses in his original game, he would have became overpowered. What was I to do? I was conflicted,” he wrote at the time.

“I do this with all characters, but I decided I needed to first immerse myself in the original games and absorb the creator’s intention. Even though Sonic has a lot of games, I decided to base the core of Sonic on the ones I played. Of course, I played the older titles, but I also completed the newest installment at the time – Sonic the Hedgehog for the Playstation 3.”

Considering how little he has played of Overwatch, it seems more unlikely than ever that Tracer or any other hero will come to Smash, much to the disappointment of Overwatch Director Jeff Kaplan.

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As Dexerto previously reported, Kaplan was extremely open to the idea of Tracer joining Smash Ultimate.

“To the Smash Brothers team, whatever character you want, we love them all. They’re all our babies, you can have any single one of them. We have 31 to choose from,” he said back before hero 32, Echo, was revealed.

With six DLC characters still to come as part of Fighters Pass Volume 2, it’s still anyone’s guess as to who they will be and who will be unveiled first.

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That said, a leaker who correctly claimed that Bytleth would be DLC 5 also said that Crash Bandicoot would be next up. However, there’s been no announcement yet and fans are still waiting with bated breath.

It will only be a matter of time until the identity of the next fighter is known, but at this moment, it’s looking very unlikely to be someone from Overwatch.