Super Smash Bros. DLC will add 5 characters to the roster

During Thursday’s Nintendo Direct, highlighting the massive scope of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, director Masahiro Sakurai announced inevitable plans for a paid DLC to be rolled out in the months after launch.

Despite 74 characters already on the roster (with the last-minute announcement of a post-release Piranha Plant fighter bumping the count up to 75), Sakurai announced that the game would add new fighters, developed from scratch, exclusively for the paid DLC fighter packs.

The plan is to roll out five “fighter packs” through Feb. 2020. Each pack will include one fighter, one stage and one music track. Sakurai announced that the bite-size DLC portions would run $5.99.

DLC plans also include the “Fighter’s Pass,” which would bundle all five packs into one discounted buy. Fans who go all in right off the bat can nab the packs for $24.99.

Nintendo also announced that pre-purchasing the digital version of the game with the Fighters Pass in Nintendo eShop or on Nintendo.com before 11:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 6 will earn My Nintendo members 425 bonus Gold Points, or double the usual amount. The bonus points will be issued on the game’s launch day.

There are expected to be additional purchase bonuses for those who opt into the Fighter’s Pass. Sakurai revealed only one: Rex’s Mii swordfighter outfit from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The game was released too late to include Rex as an actual character in the game, but the hope is his threads will be enough to give players the same thrill.

Players who purchase a Fighters Pass will receive the Rex costume starting Dec. 7, on the day of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s launch. Here’s everything else we know about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.