Masahiro Sakurai, the head of Super Smash Bros., says he’s still developing games
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai, a longtime boss of the franchise, gave Super Smash Bros. fans a comforting update regarding his plans for upcoming games. In the most recent video in his ongoing YouTube series discussing the development of the Smash Bros. games and other aspects of the gaming industry, Sakurai touched briefly on those plans. In this most recent video, which is a “Grab Bag” conversation, he discussed game developers in general and stated that he is, at least for the time being, “still creating games.”
Sakurai made this statement near the end of his little under two and a half-minute video. However, as with all of Sakurai’s videos, if you have two minutes and 27 seconds to spare, watch the entire upload as it provides some fascinating insights from an experienced developer. But if all you’re looking for is confirmation that he will be working on games going forward, that comes in at 2:05.
Sakurai had just finished discussing how people, including developers, have the “right to choose” to follow their passions and put in a lot of effort to make them successful. Sakurai has undoubtedly followed a path that involves producing excellent games, and he stated that he is not yet finished.
“As for me, I’m still creating games for the time being,” he said. “But I’m also making this YouTube channel. I’d never done anything like this before starting out, so in a way, you could say I haven’t exactly stayed put either.”
But since game developers frequently create multiple games at a time, is it really such a huge deal when Sakurai claims to be doing the same? You would need to go back a few months to some of Sakurai’s earlier remarks regarding game development in order to comprehend why some players are pleased to even hear this statement. The game developer has previously discussed the demanding physical and mental work required to create a game like Super Smash Bros.
Ultimate and has stated that he now views himself as “semi-retired.” Concerns were raised about his involvement in future projects because, at the time, it was unclear if that meant he was actively working on a game, helping with a project instead of spearheading it, or weighing his options.
Even though his latest statement leaves us in the dark about what he’s working on—whether it’s a new Super Smash Bros. game or something entirely different for Nintendo—at least we now know that he’s still producing video games.
Even though Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the most recent game in the series, has been out for a while and has had multiple DLCs released over the years, so don’t expect Nintendo to give you a discount if you haven’t played it yet. The game still has to pay the premium Nintendo price that most first-party exclusives do, even though it has been out for some time.