The creator of Super Smash Bros. says he has been working on a new game since 2022
Game designer Masahiro Sakurai’s two-and-a-half-year YouTube journey is now complete. The creator of Super Smash Bros. and Kirby uploaded his latest video (and his 260th) to his channel Masahiro Sakurai on making games. The final episode sends off the series with a look back at its creation. While it’s bittersweet and a bit of inside baseball, Sakurai also used the broadcast to confirm that he’s been working on a new, unannounced game since 2022.
Some viewers may have thought that Sakurai has been taking it easy for the past two-plus years and has mainly focused on his YouTube channel. But he says that in addition to publishing two or three game development videos every week, he also works full-time on a new game at his company Sora Ltd.
Sakurai said that after he finished his work Super Smash Bros. Ultimateculminating in the October 2021 release of the game’s final DLC character Sora, he began working on a new game proposal. He noted that work on his next game wouldn’t start until April 2022, when he could assemble a team of developers. Sakurai used that six-month downtime to prepare for his YouTube channel, writing hundreds of scripts and recording video for a pilot.
Over the next few years, as his videos were translated, animated, edited and uploaded, Sakurai said he often worked from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. He led game development during regular work hours and oversaw after-hours videos for his Creating Games channel. Sakurai is known for his extremely long hours.
Sakurai hasn’t given any hints as to what his next game will be, who’s working on it, or who’s publishing it. “Assuming we can make it, it will have to be announced sooner or later,” Sakurai said idly.
One project Sakurai could be working on is the next Super Smash Bros. game for the Nintendo Switch 2. He has spoken about working on a sequel to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in the past, acknowledging that it would likely be a smaller-scale sequel.
Sakurai told The edge in a 2021 interview, he thinks Ultimate has “reached the limit, at least in terms of volume of content and fighters.”
“If I were to get the chance to work on another Super Smash Bros. game, that would mean we would have to reduce the roster, but we have to think about whether fans would be happy with that,” Sakurai said at the time. He also admitted that he did too much of the work himself. “In today’s Super Smash Bros. is too much of my personality. In order for a long-lasting series to continue to thrive today, we must think about eliminating the series’ dependence on just one person’s vision.”
Sakurai also suggested the idea of bringing Kid Icarus: Rebellionhis 2012 action-adventure game for the Nintendo 3DS, to new platforms. In November 2022, Sakurai teased in one of his YouTube videos, “It sure would be fun to play Kid Icarus: Rebellion on a home console. I wonder if anyone out there will ever port it?
Whatever Sakurai is working on could be one of his last games. The developer said in his latest Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games video that he’s “getting old enough to retire at some point.” Super Smash Bros. Ultimate It took about six years of development from initial planning to the final DLC, so Sakurai may finally want to rest after completing his next game. Stay tuned, says Sakurai.