With the exception of an upcoming special finale episode, Masahiro Sakurai has effectively wrapped up his YouTube channel project. Needless to say, fans of Super Smash Bros. have been speculating that Sakurai is already deep into development of the next entry in the series.
Sakurai doesn’t currently see the series continuing without his involvement, but he supposedly would actually like to leave it to someone else. In an email interview with The Verge back in 2019, Sakurai discussed the need for the franchise to eliminate its dependence on his vision for it.
“What would convince you to come back to make another Smash?” asked The Verge. “Do you think, if you did return, your role would be different or reduced?”
“Basically, if I were to have the opportunity to work on another Super Smash Bros. game, that means we would have to shrink the roster, but we need to think about whether fans would be pleased about that.” — Masahiro Sakurai
“I think we’ve reached the limit, at least in terms of volume of content and fighters,” responded Sakurai. “Basically, if I were to have the opportunity to work on another Super Smash Bros. game, that means we would have to shrink the roster, but we need to think about whether fans would be pleased about that.”
Indeed, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate truly is a special game considering its “Everyone Is Here” theme, which is a concept that apparently stunned the rest of the development team into silence upon first presenting it. Needless to say, Sakurai has been adamant that this is the sort of thing that could’ve only happened this one time in the entire series.
As such, even Sakurai has had a hard time envisioning a way to follow up Super Smash Bros. Ultimate considering that the roster may have to be trimmed down. The process of cutting characters is one that Sakurai himself loathes doing as he knows that some fans will inevitably be disappointed. Sakurai describes this as being stressful “almost to the brink of death.”
Of course, Sakurai now seems to acknowledge that there are still some fans that may never be truly satisfied even after bringing back every fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate simply because their specific hopes and wishes weren’t met. Needless to say, Sakurai might be able to ease up on stressing himself out so much with this newfound knowledge.
“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.” — Masahiro Sakurai
“Also, I’ve been doing too much of the work myself, so I’d need to resolve that, too,” continued Sakurai during his email exchange with The Verge. “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.”
When Sakurai says that he’s been doing too much of the work himself, he’s not exaggerating. During the development of Super Smash Bros. Melee, Sakurai worked 13 months straight without a single day off, and while only stopping to sleep for four hours after working a 40 hour work cycle. Needless to say, the experience ended up landing Sakurai in the hospital when he inevitably passed out.
Regardless, Sakurai has gone on the record and stated that he would prefer to leave development of the Super Smash Bros. series to someone else as it’s been very difficult for him. In fact, he’s apparently tried to do just this before, but it didn’t work out. As such, the Super Smash Bros. series is currently too dependent on Sakurai himself being involved.
“Of course, this is the way it is now because we weren’t successful in splitting the vision between multiple people before,” continued Sakurai in the interview with The Verge. “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.”
“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
At this point, there are plenty of telltale signs that seem to indicate development for the next entry in the franchise has begun. For example, we appear to be close to the end of the Nintendo Switch’s lifecycle.
According to Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa, the Switch successor is slated to be announced before the end of this fiscal year, which concludes on April 1, 2025. Nintendo will likely want to continue the trend of releasing a new Super Smash Bros. entry for every mainline Nintendo console since the Nintendo 64, especially considering that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sits as the third best-selling game on the Switch with over 34.66 million sales at this point.
Additionally, Bandai Namco’s Studio 2 & Studio S, the developers behind Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, recently filled positions seeking game designers experienced with action games played from a “side-view.” If this game is what we believe it to be, then it would mean that Bandai Namco will be returning to develop their third Super Smash Bros. title.
Though Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s developers are finished with balance updates for the game, they recently pushed update 13.0.3 out. While this patch only addressed a single issue associated with the online ranking system, the fact that any number of developers sat down to work on this at all has huge implications for the future of the series.
Finally, it’s also been rumored that GameCube controllers are once again in production, which could be tied to Nintendo preparing for the GameCube library on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership, a new Super Smash Bros. entry, or both. Regardless, Nintendo has a history of bringing the GameCube controller back to production specifically for the Super Smash Bros. series, even though the GameCube generation has long since passed.
Sakurai’s philosophy for developing the Super Smash Bros. franchise has typically been to develop each entry as though it could be the last one. Due to this, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to have later entries top its predecessor.
At this point, not even Sakurai himself is sure on how a sequel can come after Super Smash Bros. Ultimate without its “Everyone Is Here” theme, which almost didn’t even happen to begin with. Regardless, Sakurai understands that the series right now is not able to continue at all unless he gets involved.
Even Satoru Iwata was aware of this fact as far back as Super Smash Bros. Brawl considering how he went out of his way to recruit Sakurai as the game director of next Super Smash Bros. title after Super Smash Bros. Melee. Had Sakurai not accepted this position, Iwata’s only backup plan was to port Super Smash Bros. Melee to the Wii with online features.
Having said all of this, Sakurai believes that there might someday be a Super Smash Bros. that he’s not involved with. Since Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s release, Sakurai has, on more than a few occasions, declared that we’re not yet at that point, but it sounds as though he may attempt to ween himself away from the series with the development of the next one.
For the series to continue in the distant future, more influence from other developers’ visions may be incorporated with the next game or two within the series. We’ll just have to see how different things appear going forward.