During the final episode of Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games, the famous director revealed he’s currently in active development for a new game. During various bits of the YouTube video, he briefly teases the project while talking about his schedule for the channel.
A Smashing Legend
Masahiro Sakuraiis a popular game director who has been involved in multiple Nintendo projects over the years. While he was formerly a HAL Laboratory developer and currently works as a freelance at Sora, he was the original creator forKirbyand Super Smash Bros., two iconic franchises under Big N’s umbrella.
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His latest project wasSuper Smash Bros. Ultimatefor Nintendo Switch, which came out back in 2018. The game had multiple DLC characters over the following years up toKingdom Hearts' Soraback in 2021. Ever since then, we have had no idea about his current work, except for the fact he took some time out of his schedule to keep a video series going on a personal YouTube channel.
In the Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games series, he talked about many game design aspects, as a way to share some of the knowledge and experience he acquired over the years in both Japanese and English. He went through many aspects, from specific game programming details to an overview of projects he previously worked on, including the Smash Bros. games and even smaller titles like the Japanese-only Mushiking.
In the final episode, he explains how he planned all the episodes from the start, many production details about the YouTube Channel, and even how costly it all went, as he hired specialized help for the videos and translations. He also pointed out that he kept the videos going while already working on a new project.
Veiled in Mystery
According to Sakurai’s latest video, it all started back in 2021, when he was working on the video aboutTekken’s Kazuya joining Smash and the final adjustments on Kingdom Hearts Sora’s gameplay. He received an invitation to work on a new project and made his proposal detailing what he’d like to work on.
He doesn’t explain which company hired him or what the game is about, but he points out that it should have an announcement in the near future if everything goes well. He also explains in the video that actual development started back in April 2022, which gave him a few months of leisure between projects, something he didn’t have between previous works.
With that free time, he came up with the idea to create the videos, planning out all the scripts before he got busy with the game development demands. He has, however, been working on the project for a little over two years now and fans are speculating what title it could be, leaving some hopeful to see it as one of the early games for Nintendo’s next system, the upcoming successor to Nintendo Switch.
He doesn’t explain which company hired him or what the game is about, but he points out that it should have an announcement in the near future if everything goes well.
You can see the full video below to catch a glimpse of Sakurai’s video project as well as his mentions of the new project.
