Vergeben leaks

The Vergeben leaks are a series of insider info from the user Vergeben, a well known leaker coming from a history of predicting fighting games, about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Starting before E3 2018, Vergeben's leaks were undoubtedly infamous on which characters would make the cut for this new alleged game. While most people have argued over the legitimacy of these leaks, almost all of what Vergeben told was predicted right, with his only fault being that a Square Enix character would be the first one revealed as downloadable content.

E3 2018 leak

On May 16th, 2018 Vergeben posted a thread on GameFAQs, claiming he had a reliable source with information on the character roster of the then teased but still unrevealed Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Specifically, he said that Ridley and Simon Belmont would be newcomers and that the entire roster from Super Smash Bros. 4 would return with no cuts, with the Ice Climbers and Snake also returning after being cut from SSB4. Vergeben also claimed that the popular Microsoft-owned indie game Minecraft would be represented in some form.

On June 12, 2018, The lack of cuts from SSB4's roster, the return of Snake and the Ice Climbers, and the addition of Ridley were all confirmed during Nintendo’s E3 2018 Direct. This left Simon Belmont and Minecraft representation Vergeben's only unconfirmed claims. In response to a GameFAQs post asking about Simon, Vergeben replied “Just be patient. There’s still things to be revealed before release”, suggesting that Simon would be revealed at a later date. He later claimed on Reddit that there were at least “half a dozen newcomers” left to be revealed, but he didn’t know who any of them were aside from Simon.

Newcomer leaks

On July 28, 2018, Vergeben made a post on GameFAQs titled Disregard ALL people claiming leaks that don't have these two characters, which restated his earlier claim that Simon would appear and also added Isabelle to his list of claims.

On August 3, 2018, Vergeben posted on a GameFAQs thread where he claimed that a Pokémon from Generation VII would appear as a playable fighter, and that it would not be Decidueye, Lycanroc, or Mimikyu.

On August 8, 2018, Simon Belmont was officially revealed as a newcomer in that day's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct, confirming Vergeben's earlier claims that he would appear. [1] Also in this Direct, Mimikyu was revealed to appear as a Poké Ball summon, corroborating his claim that Mimikyu will not be playable.

On August 18, 2018, Vergeben made a post on a thread stating that Ken from Street Fighter would appear in the game as an Echo Fighter of Ryu.

On September 13, 2018, Isabelle was revealed as a newcomer at the end of that day's Nintendo Direct, confirming Vergeben's claim that she would appear as a playable character.

On September 16, 2018, Vergeben made a new thread claiming that his reliable sources have finally confirmed to him that Incineroar is the Generation VII Pokémon that will appear as a newcomer. He also addresses the popular "Box Theory", which states that there will only be two more fighters in the base game as the box art for the Special Edition of the game only has room for two more fighters. He states that he knows for certain that Incineroar and Ken will be in the game.

DLC rumors

On August 22, 2018, Vergeben made another post on a thread, this time stating that a new third-party fighter owned by Square Enix would appear in the game. This lead some to believe that Vergeben was simply taking info from the NeoGAF Leak, but the next day he claimed in a thread that he did not know anything about the NeoGAF leak. He also states that the NeoGAF leak contradicts his own information, since it claims there will be no new Pokémon rep. In the time since his original claim of a Square Enix newcomer, Vergeben has stated that he has actually heard seven different names for the newcomer, as Square Enix is intentionally sending out multiple names to try to prevent the real one from being leaked.

On September 16 2018, Vergeben also claims the game will have post-launch content, which could possibly include the Square Enix newcomer if the Box Theory turns out to be true.

On November 2, 2018, Vergeben made a post reiterating that he was confident one of the 5 post-launch DLC characters will be a Square Enix rep, and that it would be the first of the DLC characters to launch. He also reiterated that Minecraft content will be coming in some form. Additionally, he stated that Senjougahara__Hitagi, another leaker he considers reliable, has heard that the Minecraft content will include Steve as a playable character. He also shared that Hitagi's sources claim that there have been talks of a Granblue Fantasy newcomer as DLC, most likely Katalina. Hitagi initially verified the Steve and Katalina claims, but she later retracted the Katalina claim, saying that the "deal" was not related to Smash Bros. On November 21, Hitagi again stated that Steve is definitely coming, but also announced that she has given up trying to find out about the rest of the characters, as the ones she heard about were starting to look like red herrings, including any Square Enix fighters, thus bringing Vergeben's claim into doubt, as well.

On November 24, 2018, another insider by the name of Ryce stated that Vergeben was likely misled about Steve being a DLC character, since this claim came out long before the DLC choices were set in stone. Vergeben made a post agreeing with Ryce and stating that he still heard that Minecraft was still being represented with a boss, despite acknowledging the fact that nobody had yet found any references to Minecraft in the datamine of the full game. It should be noted that this does not dismiss Hitagi's claim of Steve being DLC.

On December 6, 2018, Joker was revealed to be the first DLC fighter at The Game Awards 2018. This directly contradicted Vergeben's claim that the first DLC character to be revealed would be a Square Enix character. This is notably the first of Vergeben's claims that has been proven wrong. Vergeben later justified this discrepancy by claiming that Joker was moved up on the schedule last-minute.^{[citation needed]}

On December 30th, 2018, Vergeben made a post following up that the Square Enix newcomer is most likely a Dragon Quest character, namely Erdrick, Luminary or Slime.

On April 25th, 2019, Vergeben provided an update claiming that Erdrick was definitely in the Fighters Pass. He also stated that content of some kind was being added but that it did not necessarily mean that Steve would be playable.

On June 6th, 2019, Vergeben claimed that Banjo & Kazooie had a 99% chance of being part of the Fighters Pass. He also reaffirmed his statement that Minecraft would be represented through DLC, though he also stated that he was unsure if Steve would be playable. Banjo & Kazooie were confirmed at E3 2019 along with Erdrick, albeit as a skin for Hero, something Vergeben stated he took great joy in as he was not informed of multiple Dragon Quest skins, and that it also explained why he kept hearing Luminary along with Erdrick.

Verdict

At present, the following are the claims made by Vergeben that have been confirmed:

• Ridley, Simon, Isabelle, Incineroar, and Ken would appear as newcomers, the latter as an Echo Fighter of Ryu.
• All characters from Super Smash Bros. 4 would return, as well as Snake and the Ice Climbers.
• Over half a dozen newcomers would be included (specifically eleven in the base game).
• Decidueye, Lycanroc, Mimikyu, and Isaac would not be playable, the latter instead returning as an Assist Trophy.
• Banjo & Kazooie, and either Luminary or Erdrick (Luminary and Erdrick both being present under the banner of Hero) would be part of the Fighters Pass.

At present, the following are the claims made by Vergeben that have not yet been confirmed:

• Some form of Minecraft content, potentially a boss, will appear as DLC.

At present, the following are the claims made by Vergeben that have been proven wrong:

• The first character in the Fighters Pass will be a Square Enix character.