Super Smash Bros. and Kirby director Masahiro Sakurai revealed he’s still making games while juggling his recent shift into becoming a video game YouTuber.
In the latest episode of Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games, aptly titled “Creators Change, Too,” Sakurai reflected on what it was like entering the video game industry at a young age and experiencing his predecessors slowly phase out of public consciousness. As if reading the room via the internet, Sakurai addressed whether the subject matter of his video pertained to himself saying he’s still actively working in the industry.
“As for me, I’m still creating games for the time being,” Sakurai said. “But I’m also making this YouTube channel. I’d never done anything like this before starting out, so in a way, you could say I haven’t exactly stayed put either.”
Although Sakurai coupled his announcement with an old Smash Bros. gameplay video, he didn’t disclose whether or not he was working on a new entry in the eclectic video games Oscars-esque fighting game series. However, in a previous YouTube video, Sakurai has gone on record saying “I can’t imagine a Smash Bros. title without me,” and that he’d still like to “keep working with Nintendo.” Regardless, we’ll have to keep our fingers crossed for whatever Sakurai has been cooking at a later date.
Toward the latter half of the video, Sakurai encouraged viewers not to grieve developers if they’ve pivoted out of the industry or “secured patents that made them a fortune” to pursue a non-public-facing career path. Look no further than fellow video game figures like Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto and former PlatinumGames developer Hideki Kamiya coming out to say they haven’t left the industry wholesale despite their respective absences. Instead, Sakurai urged fans to support developers in their new ventures even if that means they’ve found fulfilling work outside of games.
“Aside from those who reach retirement age, there are quite a few people who disappear from the game industry part way through their careers,” Sakurai said. “Of course, for some of them it’s simply unclear where they ended up. This isn’t limited to the game industry, but if a creator you know does suddenly vanish without a trace please don’t write them of as “washed up” or “finished”!”
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh