 Smash. Smash never changes. There will always be new characters entering the fray, and there will always be endless discussion online about who might soon make the cut. Now, Vault Boy, the mascot for the Fallout series, has been added as a new costume for the Mii Gunner. This might seem like a surprising choice for Super Smash Bros, but it's actually the result of years of negotiations. Into the scenes, publisher Bethesda has been in discussions with Nintendo about adding a representative from their games into Smash. These talks are part of larger conversations between the two companies dating back to before the release of the Nintendo Switch. We know that Masahiro Sakurai, overseer of the Super Smash Bros series, is a fan of Fallout. In 2017 he livestreamed himself playing Fallout 4, along with several other titles including Just Cause 3 and Dragon Quest Builders, on the Japanese streaming platform Niko Niko. In the stream, he expanded his sanctuary settlement and showed off his collection of power armour suits. Of course, while Masahiro has a hand in many aspects of Smash design and development, he doesn't make every single decision on what content makes it into the game. Higher-ups at Nintendo and Bethesda have been discussing crossovers of many kinds for years. According to Bethesda's Pete Hines, the two companies have always gotten along, but the Switch has provided an opportunity for greater cooperation. The Switch is a good fit for many Bethesda games in a way that the Wii and the Wii U were not. He said, We've always gotten on well with Nintendo. It's just a question of do the games that we make technically are they a fit for the platforms that they're making? In the past, the simple answer has been no. Like, Skyrim did not run on anything that Nintendo was making. Could we have changed a bunch of stuff to make it work? Maybe. But that's not our approach. Now, Bethesda are very proud of their growing fanbase on the Switch and how some players will come to the Nintendo console through their games. Pete said, One of the things we discovered in talking with Nintendo is that there's a segment of their audience who plays other kinds of things on their platform that also likes our stuff. And there's a segment of their audience and it's a healthy size, whose entry point into the platform is our title. It's interesting to see. It definitely fits an audience that Nintendo already has, but it's clear that we are bringing some new people to Switch. I met a guy yesterday who said that the first things they bought on the Switch were Doom, Wolfenstein and Skyrim because they are the sort of thing they wanted and the fact that they were on the Switch made them get a Switch. So with Nintendo and Bethesda working so closely on these ports, they have absolutely had conversations about crossovers. When asked whether Bethesda would ever make a Mario plus Rabbids style game, Pete said, We're always having conversations with them. But again, those conversations wouldn't necessarily take place with me. They'd take place with the dev to say, We have an idea for a this or a that, and we want to do a game that is a crossover with the Switch. This fits with what we've heard about id software's attempts to get Doom Guy into Smash and how Nintendo has politely refrained from taking them up on the offer just yet. When asked whether there had been discussions about a Bethesda character in Smash, Pete simply said, Oh yeah. This particular interview took place in 2018, so it's clear that Nintendo and Bethesda have been talking together about a Smash cameo for a while. It's interesting to note the time frame involved in moving from their initial conversations to even the relatively simple inclusion of a Me Fighter costume. But then these things need to fit Nintendo's time scale. According to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fesame, once the company decides they want to include someone in Smash in any capacity, not much stands in their way. He said, We have found that as Nintendo has approached the owner of the intellectual property, they're excited for that character to be a part of Super Smash Brothers. I personally have not been involved in those discussions, but as I have talked with Mr Sakurai and others in the development area, I've never heard of a story where we've been turned down as we pursued a particular character. So why is Vault Boy in Smash? Because Nintendo wanted it, and having built up a solid relationship over the past few years, Bethesda was more than happy to help make the crossover happen. The moral of the story is that it pays to build friendships with others. Skyrim helped bring people to the switch, Smash will now bring people to fall out, and as everyone plays and works together, we all feel the benefits. After all, Super Smash Brothers is a collaborative endeavour, and Smash, Smash never changes.