At E3 2011, it was confirmed that a fourth "Super Smash Bros." game would be coming to the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, with the two games being cross-compatible with each other. Sakurai stated that the announcement was made public in order to attract developers needed for the games, as development for the games did not start until May 2012 due to production on "". On June 21, 2012, Nintendo announced that the creation of the games would be a co-production between Sakurai's Sora Ltd. and Bandai Namco Entertainment. The games were officially revealed at E3 2013, with new information being released via trailers, Nintendo Direct presentations, and developer posts on Miiverse. The game features 58 characters, 19 of whom are new, and 7 of whom are downloadable. The game was released for Nintendo 3DS in Japan in September 2014, and in North America, Europe, and Australia the following month. The Wii U version was released in North America, Europe, and Australia in November 2014, and in Japan the following month.