Masahiro Sakurai has dedicated years of his life developing the Super Smash Bros. series. The pinnacle of the franchise thus far, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, feels like a worthy celebration of gaming.
Shortly after the release of Kingdom Hearts’ Sora as the final DLC challenger for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, The Verge asked Sakurai if he ever had any regrets about other game development opportunities that he might’ve missed out on because of the time he’s dedicated to developing the Super Smash Bros. series.
“I do sometimes look back and think about the fact that there may have been other opportunities had I not been working on Super Smash Bros.,” responded Sakurai in the email interview. “However, I have no regrets because Super Smash Bros. is like none other, and this was an opportunity that I could not have gained with any other project.”
“I do sometimes look back and think about the fact that there may have been other opportunities had I not been working on Super Smash Bros.” — Masahiro Sakurai
Of course, it’s worth mentioning that the game dev originally left HAL back in 2003 after the release of Kirby Air Ride. Back then, he felt a certain pressure within the gaming industry to continue developing sequels for already established intellectual properties rather than creating a new project.
Ironically, he ended up getting recruited by Satoru Iwata specifically for the purpose of overseeing the development of a sequel to Super Smash Bros. Melee. Since then, he’s developed Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Kid Icarus: Uprising, Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS, Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Thus far, only Kid Icarus: Uprising is the only game not directly tied to the Super Smash Bros. series, and even then, it served as a revival to an already established franchise.
He has even noted that he has effectively spent nine years of his life working on the Super Smash Bros. almost consecutively with just Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate due to him transitioning immediately into work for Smash Ultimate after finishing the 3DS and Wii U entries in the franchise. As such, Sakurai has come to ponder about an early retirement from time to time, even considering himself “semi-retired” at one point.
We recently learned from the game director himself that he’s been busy overseeing the work on a secret game project. Though development started in April 2022, he has declared that he was able to write up the proposal at “lightning speed” back in July 2021. During that period, he was also juggling work on Kazuya and Sora as DLC characters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Though details are scarce, the timeline surrounding this secret game project seems to match up with that of the Switch successor, which will apparently feature backwards compatibility. The console is expected to be announced before the end of Nintendo’s fiscal year, which spans through March 31, 2025.
The most talked about theory among fans suggests that Sakurai is already working on the next entry of the Super Smash Bros. series. Knowing him, he himself was probably aware that this sort of speculation would arise upon the reveal that he’s been working on an unannounced game.
Regardless, he is adamant that he doesn’t have any regrets about prioritizing the Super Smash Bros. series throughout his career. There is something truly special about this take on the platform brawler genre, and it’s really become something that fans adore.
Previously, he’s talked about the great lengths that he’d be willing to go through for the sake of getting more people to play his game.
“This would be a challenge for the future and something that needs to be discussed with Nintendo, if there were to be a next installment in the Super Smash Bros. series.” — Masahiro Sakurai
“If it resulted in more people playing my game, I think I would weather any hardship,” once declared Sakurai. Indeed, he once landed himself in the hospital due to being overworked during the development of Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Though Sakurai doesn’t regret the time he’s invested into Super Smash Bros. over chasing other potential opportunities, he did mention that the series has become too dependent on his vision as its creator.
“Also, I’ve been doing too much of the work myself, so I’d need to resolve that, too,” continued Sakurai. “The current Super Smash Bros. has too much of my personality poured into it. In order for a long-time series to continue thriving today, we need to think about eliminating the series’ dependence on just one person’s vision.”
As of right now, even Sakurai believes that there will someday be another entry in the Smash franchise, though he doesn’t see it happening without his involvement. It would seem that Sakurai is interested in solving this issue for the good of the series, should there be another game.
“Of course, this is the way it is now because we weren’t successful in splitting the vision between multiple people before,” stated Sakurai. “This would be a challenge for the future and something that needs to be discussed with Nintendo, if there were to be a next installment in the Super Smash Bros. series.”