During the “special finale episode” of Masahiro Sakurai’s YouTube channel, it was casually revealed that Sakurai had been involved in the development of a secret game project since April 2022. He apparently whipped up the proposal for this game back in July 2021 during the development of Kazuya Mishima and Sora DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
“It was around July 2021. I was busy working on the DLC of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,” suddenly stated Sakurai on the subject. “To be precise, I was putting together the video for ‘Mr. Sakurai Presents Kazuya.’ Sora was in development too, of course. While I was busy working on those tasks, I received a request to write a game proposal, which I finished at lightning speed.”
Of course, Sakurai had already previously alluded to the fact that he was still involved in the game industry in this capacity as he had stated at one point that he was still creating games for the time being. This was particularly interesting at the time as he had also stated outright that he was semi-retired as of December 2022, but perhaps he was just hinting at how he actually had some free time until the start of his next project.
“While I was busy working on those tasks, I received a request to write a game proposal, which I finished at lightning speed.” — Masahiro Sakurai
Regardless, Sakurai obviously wasn’t willing to divulge too many more details about this upcoming title. However, he did seem to suggest that it could get announced soon.
“I’m sorry I can’t share more about this project, but assuming we’re able to get it made, it should be announced sooner or later,” continued Sakurai.
During his free time, Sakurai made the bold decision to do much of the work necessary to start up his YouTube channel, which was primarily focused on imparting his wisdom and experiences regarding game creation.
According to Sakurai, the target timeframe of the team’s assembly was set to April 2022. Based on how the rest of the video goes, it sounds like work on this game did indeed begin in April 2022.
“I’m sorry I can’t share more about this project, but assuming we’re able to get it made, it should be announced sooner or later.” — Masahiro Sakurai
With all of this in mind, this means that Masahiro Sakurai’s mysterious game project has now been in production for a period of time longer than Super Smash Bros. Ultimate started its development until the reveal of its very first trailer.
This trailer was intentionally cryptic about what it was exactly, leaving many to speculate on whether it would be a port of Super Smash Bros. 4 or not on the Switch. Still, it did reveal Splatoon’s Inkling as a new playable character.
If we assume the team was assembled for this upcoming title around April 30, 2022, then it’s been at least 921 days since then. As for Smash Ultimate, we know that its cycle started in February 2016 (though the proposal was completed back in December 2015).
With the assumption that work on Smash Ultimate theoretically began on February 1, 2016, then it means that it took the developers at most 766 days to release the first trailer that told fans that “Super Smash Bros. is coming to the Nintendo Switch” on March 8, 2018.
It’s also worth noting that the time between Smash Ultimate beginning production and its release date on December 7, 2018 took around 1,040 days. We’re fast approaching that timeline for this new game, and yet there still hasn’t even been a trailer for it.
What’s going on here? More than likely, Sakurai has been tasked with overseeing the development of a new game for the Nintendo Switch successor, which is set to be officially revealed prior to the end of Nintendo’s fiscal year on March 31, 2025. This suggests that Sakurai’s new game could be a launch title for the new console.
Of course, fans immediately began speculating that this new project could be related to the Super Smash Bros. series. This would make sense considering how Smash Ultimate recently crossed the 35 million milestone, so Nintendo would obviously have a vested interest in having the next Smash entry announced early for the new console.
Though Nintendo confirmed backwards compatibility for the Switch successor just yesterday, the Super Smash Bros. series has proven capable of being a console seller on its own. The company will likely want to continue the tradition of producing a new Smash entry for every mainline console since the franchise’s debut on the Nintendo 64.
With news now officially surfacing about the Switch successor from Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa, it shouldn’t be too long now before that announcement finally drops (though it’ll likely be in early 2025 at this point). However, considering the amount of time this new game project has been in development, it should be a fairly brief wait between its unveiling and its actual release considering how long Smash Ultimate was worked on.