Masahiro Sakurai, best known as the director of the Super Smash Bros. series, has announced that his incredible gaming YouTube channel is set to "wrap up" in 2024.
In a YouTube community post published earlier today, Sakurai writes, "It's a bit late to be saying this, but… Happy New Year! I'm planning to wrap up Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games sometime this year. Until then, I hope you'll stay tuned!"
Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games launched on August 23, 2022, and since then has posted multiple videos every week on topics like game design, project management, and historical insights on projects Sakurai previously directed. Each episode is short but lavishly produced, with custom art and graphics and an almost absurd variety of relevant gameplay footage from various titles.
I've watched pretty much every single one of these videos since Sakurai launched the channel, and they're pretty much universally fascinating - just quick, digestible bites of insight from somebody who has been making games for a long, long time. While Sakurai's announcement that the channel is wrapping up has some Smash Bros. fans hopeful that he'll soon return to the series, it remains to be seen what his next project will be.
I have no idea the full extent of what it takes to make these videos, but given their production value, it sure seems like they're a time-consuming and expensive endeavor. Sakurai works with an external production company called QBIST to edit the videos and the localization house 8-4 to present them into English. 8-4 is primarily known for gaming localizations, including translating Street Fighter 6 to English and bringing Undertale into Japanese. (In another community note, Sakurai says he actually "got 8-4's contact info from Undertale creator Toby Fox.")
Either way, it seems Sakurai is about to have a lot more free time for whatever his next project will be. While he technically works for Nintendo in directing the Smash series, he's never been an employee there, working at close Nintendo collaborator HAL Laboratory for much of his early career. Since 2005, he's essentially been doing business under the name Sora Ltd. even as he continued directing projects under Nintendo.
"When I quit my in-house job and went independent, I did so in order to contribute more to the game industry," Sakurai wrote in another community post. "It wasn't just because I wanted to be free to make the kinds of games I liked. In fact, I also wondered if there was some way I could help outside of directly making games. But how? That question eventually led me to start this channel. It's been a long time since I went independent, but my desire to contribute remains the same."
Sakurai has actually discussed the possibility of the next Smash Bros. game, saying, "It's fair to assume there will be another one," and that he can't imagine anyone else making it. He's also said that he's "semi-retired," so who knows what the future has in store for Nintendo's fighting franchise. Personally, I feel like Smash Ultimate would be a perfect capstone on Sakurai's time with the series and I've enjoyed his video series so much I'm not ready to give it up. Smash can find a new director for a new generation, right?
Put up your dukes in the best fighting games out there.
