Why do Wario characters hardly show up in spinoffs?

[Fawfulthegreat64]

I don't think unfitting designs should be a roadblock. A more varied selection of designs would benefit as long as they aren't so different it clashes (like cartoon vs. realistic etc). Wario's designs are mostly more energetic but not enough to be anything more than a bit of added variety IMO. Of course I think they should easily be priority over other franchises (and frankly, even if I don't like other franchises in Mario spinoffs, I've slightly warmed up to the idea of Kirby, as at least Kirby's designs would fit enough in Mario's universe which I can't really say about Link)

 

[Dorayaki]

Maybe those third party characters are from super-popular franchises, so they're pretty much product placement.

We had FF jobs in Sport Mix and DQ heroes from Fortune Street, these games are from Square Enix and they obviously treat these games as a collaboration. Second being Mario Kart GP the arcade version, the insertion of BANDAI Namco characters were also based on their hardware supports and licsneses.

Aside from ROB from Kart DS, I do see there's a reason for the DLCs for Kart 8 being Nintendo allstars cause very big proportion of fans would love to pay for them than just another Mario character. Warioware, on ther other hand, perhaps suit in unlockables from the initial roster.

 

[Ray Trace]

If Mario can cross-over with Link in a kart-racing game, wield guns with Rabbids, or play basketball with LeBron James, anything is freaking possible in this franchise.

 

[TB100]

I theorize it's a mixture between the Wario franchise being largely divorced from the Mario franchise with no crossover and/or involvement from the Mario team (unlike DKC), as well as possible mandates in place that prohibit them from appearing.