Just last Tuesday, Masahiro Sakurai, creator of the Super Smash Bros. series, released his final scheduled YouTube video for his “Creating Games” channel. However, he also told fans to look forward to a “special finale episode” popping up in the future.
Earlier today, Masahiro Sakurai revealed that this special finale is now slated to air on October 22 at 20:00 JST. For those of us living in North America, that’s 4:00 a.m. on the West Coast and 7:00 a.m. on the East Coast.
In his post, Sakurai mentions that this video will span for over 40 minutes. Excluding compilations, this will be the longest running episode on the “Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games” YouTube channel.
Sakurai acknowledges that this episode might appear at inconvenient times for certain users based on their time zones. Fortunately, the episode will still be viewable after it is streamed.
More than likely, this video will feature a review of everything that has been posted on the channel since its inception. Of course, there may be a few new details shared throughout the experience as well.
With a previous upload, Sakurai declared that he was still creating games for the time being despite previously saying that he was semi-retired. This led many fans to speculate that development on the next Super Smash Bros. entry after Super Smash Bros. Ultimate could potentially be in the works.
There are a number of factors that seem to support this theory. For example, Nintendo Shuntaro Furukawa recently stated that the Switch successor will be announced before the end of this fiscal year, which ends on April 1, 2025. Needless to say, Super Smash Bros. has appeared on every mainline console since its debut on the Nintendo 64.
Bandai Namco’s Studio 2 & Studio S has apparently recently filled job positions that sought developers experienced with action games played from a “side-view.” Notably, Studio 2 & Studio S are the developers Nintendo used to make games like Super Smash Bros. 4, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Nintendo also recently pushed update 13.0.3 for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which resolved a longstanding issue with the Global Smash Power system that’s been present since the game launched. The fact that any number of developers were able to sit down and apply this fix at all has huge implications for the future of the series.
Finally, it’s been rumored that GameCube controllers are once again back in reproduction. Though this could potentially be something related to GameCube games coming to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership, GameCube controllers have historically been a telltale sign of a new Super Smash Bros. entry being developed.
With the upcoming special finale episode, we’re unlikely to get any sort of confirmation on a new Super Smash Bros. title being in the works since Sakurai seems to value surprising fans. However, Sakurai may end up providing hints on what’s next for him during the broadcast.
Needless to say, it’s a video that’s certainly going to be worth checking out once it’s live on YouTube.
Look forward to the YouTube Premiere special finale of Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games this coming Tuesday, October 22nd at 20:00 Japan time! (11:00 GMT) It’ll run a bit over 40 minutes.
It might be a bit difficult for my international viewers to tune in at that time, but… pic.twitter.com/czPbzHhPdW
— 桜井 政博 / Masahiro Sakurai (@Sora_Sakurai) October 20, 2024