Current Events > Masahiro Sakurai says in an interview that he's semi-retired.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://twitter.com/PushDustIn/status/1607596116828368898

14. Sakurai confirms that he is semi-retired. He is 52 after all. When Smash for 3DS / Wii U and Ultimate he spent 9 years in active development. Sakurai felt that if he is just continuously making games full time, his life will be over before he realizes it.

15. Sakurai thinks the work on Smash is very important as it uses so many different characters/ concepts from the game industry. He is very happy to have worked on it. But, since he has more time available, he figured he would make his YouTube channel while he had the chance.

16. Just like his column, there may be a point when his YouTube channel suddenly ends. However, he wants it to be an archive of his lessons. After finishing Smash Ultimate, Sakurai felt like he had to aim for the next milestone in his life.

I wonder if he will return for the next Smash game after all? After the behemoth that was Smash Ultimate, him starting his Youtube channel did strike me as something of a "next chapter" in his life.

If Kirby didn't already come out with a super Mario Odyssey-esque game for the switch, I would have predicted that Sakurai's next project would have been basically that.

I actually hope, if he does anything, it will be a new IP. The man has been carrying a franchise of other people's works for a long time now. He should be rewarded with the time, team, and budget to make something truly of his own imagination.

i'd want him to head a kid icarus uprising 2, but that's about it

viewmaster_pi posted...

i'd want him to head a kid icarus uprising 2, but that's about it

He's already said that Uprising 2 won't be out until 2037, so we've still got a while...

s0nicfan posted...

If Kirby didn't already come out with a super Mario Odyssey-esque game for the switch, I would have predicted that Sakurai's next project would have been basically that.

I actually hope, if he does anything, it will be a new IP. The man has been carrying a franchise of other people's works for a long time now. He should be rewarded with the time, team, and budget to make something truly of his own imagination.

Sakurai hasn't worked on a Kirby game since Amazing Mirror in 2004.

Semi-retired is what you call it when you still do work but you just want to make it sound like you're cool

I misread the word after semi at first

I appreciate his youtube channel

BumP

I mean I he has done a lot for games and gave almost a decade to just two Smash games. There has to be some burn out happened I would think as well. I think he deserves to do what he wants at this point. He is a dude that walks off the beaten path for sure.

Irony posted...

Semi-retired is what you call it when you still do work but you just want to make it sound like you're cool

He said in a recent video on his youtube channel that when doing contract work he gets paid based on sales: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVhGCtCNGHg

Assuming the same deal was made for the Smash Bros games, he's likely quite rich. When someone is semi-retired, it means they can work but they don't have to in order to pay the bills. I'm pretty sure he fits that definition.

1337toothbrush posted...

He said in a recent video on his youtube channel that when doing contract work he gets paid based on sales: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVhGCtCNGHg

I'd say I'd want other developers to take note on how he accomplished getting a cut out of sales, but most 99% of the industry are never going to have the negotiating power he has, nor the trust and respect he commands to be able to accomplish this.

I wont allow him to retire until I get a Melee port.

DeadBankerDream posted...

I wont allow him to retire until I get a Melee port.

The best you will get is a rerelease of Melee on a Gamecube Online service on the Switch or Switch 2, which he would have little to do with.

Sakurai is basically one of the Nintendo OGs. I'm pretty sure they trusted him to sell gangbusters and made a contract that gives him a big payday

I mean he deserves it. If anybody deserves something like a personal % of sales type contract on a product released by a massive company, it's him

Same way Miyazaki is retired but then says he can't live without making anime.

Does this mean we will actually get some interesting characters added to smash?

refmon posted...

Does this mean we will actually get some interesting characters added to smash?

You will get Toothpaste chan from Fire Emblem Engage and you will love their Down B counter.

DeadBankerDream posted...

You will get Toothpaste chan from Fire Emblem Engage and you will love their Down B counter.

They'll [thankfully?] be old news by the time the next Smash game goes into production.

Same with Pokemon Scarlet/Violet.