Smash Bros. Creator Masahiro Sakurai Supposedly Confirms He's "Semi-Retired"

Let the Smash Meltdowns begin, We all knew that the next game could not carry the same amount of content. Now add to that, the fact that someone else will have to take the reigns and try to live up to an impossible task.
Sakurai is now a Youtuber anyways, he doesn't need this nonsense. 😂

He’s certainly earned the rest. I look forward to whatever he has planned for the future.

You either are or you aren't. I'm not semi-dead.

Hasn't he said that after the last three smash games? Either way. Legend.

Well it's not surprising, he had his time and now he needs time with the family. Also the next Super Smash Bros. needs to be a reboot, go back to exclusively Nintendo characters and make the battle system as much fun and deep as it could be or expand what Smash Ultimate had and pick and choose who to bring back and who to withdrawn.

I have wondered for a long time just how one would go about topping Smash Ultimate. As the title implies, it feels very much like the culmination of the series.

Granted, I can't imagine Nintendo would just let one of its top series die off, so I'm curious to see where they go with it from here.

The man deserves it, he started my gaming journey, and still continues to give amazing memory’s.

Let him rest.

Semi-retired for a Japanese worker probably means working less than 16 hours a day

He's certainly earned some rest, though I wouldn't count him out even if he publicly swore off game development for life. In the meantime, it's on Nintendo to preserve everything he's helped build. On that note, I'll take my Kid Icarus Uprising and Kirby Air Ride HD remasters and another Smash Ultimate expansion pass whenever they're ready.

@Madao haha I was thinking the same thing.

I just wished he would let others handle Smash at this point and let him work on smaller games and stuff.

"Semi-retired" means he's not fully focused on game development, I presume. Especially when one of his first videos for the channel had a little "Next Project: ???" thing. I don't think he's done yet. He might not even be done now, if the rumors are true that Bandai Namco's 3D action game remaster leaked via LinkedIn or whatever is one for Kid Icarus Uprising (not to mention he cheekily went "man oh boy I sure wonder if Kid Icarus Uprising will ever get a version on a home console haha" at the end of his video on The Fiend's Cauldron). Either way, I do expect his future projects to be smaller, aside from a potential future Smash game - and if that's not Ultimate+, it's bound to be smaller in scope while still being a huge undertaking.

He definitely deserves the long break. He's a very hard worker, so he needs to take it easy now.

I wonder if he’ll take up some sort of relatively hands-off ‘fellowship’ position like Miyamoto currently has. That would involve being employed directly at Nintendo though… and he seems quite happy with the little niche he’s carved out for himself at Sora.

Still, he’s clearly invested in mentoring the next generation. Maybe YouTube is a sufficiently good platform to do just that.

@IronMan30 Speak for yourself, that's very offensive to half-dead people like me and everyone on Facebook.

@HotGoomba I mean, I did speak for myself...

Good for Sakurai. He deserves it. I am happy for him.

Just port ultimate again with new characters

Well good at the very least I don't think he should take on the stress of directing games anymore. But I would hope behind the scenes they are training the next smash bros director. It seems like quite the honorable position despite the stress.

I guess the next Smash game will have a different director.

He’s 52 after all?? You know, you don’t have to retire. And 52 is not even close to old.

He's not that old but hes doing Smash since 1999 and he should pass the torch to a younger guy, and he can supervise.

Americans don't get to retire until they're 65...

@Koda1000 That did strike me as an odd comment too, especially when Shigeru Miyamato just passed 70 I think? And is still in the industry. I don't think there is really an average retirement from the industry, but, I agree, 52 is really not considered really old anymore. People live longer and are more active (generally) than previous generations. My Mum is the age I remember my Grandma being around when I was a child. The difference in terms of how they aged and the physical activity is staggering.

@IronMan30 Part time work is a thing.

If he's semi-retired but stil does stuff like controlling two characters at once to test them(he said it himself he did it),then its pointless,will make him have arms health issues again.

Mario games still feel like Mario games with Miyamoto having only a supervisory role, so there's no reason Smash can't go on with Sakurai moving into something of an executive director role in which he cedes the heavy lifting to others.

Heck yeah! Go out there and live your best life, Sakurai!

WHAT? Masahiro Sakurai is semi-retired? but who gonna take care of the next Super Smash Bros game?

Good for him. Do passion projects, travel, read, enjoy life. Rest.

In other words, he has no work plans whatsoever at the moment (unless you wanna count his Youtube channel) and will take a vacation of undetermined time before jumping right back into game development again. Thats what it sounds to me anyway.
He really do deserves a vacation though, man is a true workaholic.

If I could that's about the age I'd want to retire

well he made the best smash bros. I could have wished for so he got my blessing. But I don't think he can truly stay away from the industry. He'll probably have at least a councelling position somewhere...

I’m actually happy for him. There were stories of him having issues with his arms and being hooked up to IVs and just carrying on working. He’s compromised his health to keep churning out products. He should prioritise himself now.

He's gone part time. Fair enough

I'm glad the man is retiring after so much work done for Ultimate. He definitely needs it. May he have a good retirement and enjoy the work he has done in the past.

At this point, we don't really need plans for a next entry. SSBU is a masterpiece. For current hardware, can we really imagine a better entry?Maybe when VR takes off or some other thing that really expands gaming. Any succesor without tech innovation would be renewal for the sake of it. (Although as a gaming fan, I am hoping for 2B to enter the roster, of course)

Enjoy your semi retirement Sakurai, we are enjoying your life's work!

He deserves the rest but with Semi-Retired I now see him more take a consultant sort of role for game development projects. While he would still be active in the process the amount of hours he would have to put in would be lessened.

This dude has been retiring for like a decade now.

@IronMan30 It's not really that binary. My dad reduced his work hours to about five a week when my nephews were born. When I was growing up he'd routinely work 80+ hour weeks as a small business owner. If that ain't semi-retired I don't know what is.

Well deserved. I'm not a big smash guy but the amount of work and love he has put into that series is close to unmatched. He would have made Nintendo sacks of cash too. Not just in Smash sales but in the way the series rejuvenated interest in Nintendo's lesser known IP'S. I bet they sold a bunch of Mother games and merch because of him for instance.

@Ooyah Ultimate as a title also has the problem of having connotations of being the final in a series, however in Japanese it's name is closer to Super Smash Bros Special.

When will he reveal his anti-aging secrets?! Some of us…want to know.

@bonjong23 I always look for these replies on articles like this and I'm never disappointed to find this meme. The NDF always makes me proud <3

let someone else take over and keep adding content to ultimate

Whatever. He destroyed Ultimate with Fighter’s Pass 2. So unbalanced.

@IronMan30 semi-retired is the equivalent of working part time when you're older. It's a matter of semantics.

I'm guessing he will take the "hands-off" approach until full retirement. It's the phase when videogame employees no longer take the director or developer position and switch to supervisor, producer, or director. I do hear that's what Miyamoto's been doing these past years but I could be wrong about that.

Did he not semi retire 10 years ago, Wasn't smash 4 supposed to be the last one?

I’d like to see the next Smash try it’s hand at a true 3D Battle Arena with more obscure characters that have yet to be in the series (alongside the staples of course).. in the vein of say Power Stone- seeing as Capcom has neglected that for ages smh.

Think it could be a fresh and different take for the series.

… Wun can only hope.

Also, at this point Nintendo could really combine all the Mii DLC into a collection and also put the Smash Fighter Passes on sale for once.. and/or add the DLC to the Expansion Pak like they’ve done for other popular titles. It’s been forever now.

… Wun can only hope.

@IronMan30 I think he meant working a regular 40 hour week vs his usual routine 😂 or even taking a break from work for a while. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Hey, he deserves it, making a hit video game series is no small task.

At this point I think Smash is done, really all they need to do at this point is just port Ultimate eternally. You can't go bigger, and anything less is a downgrade (in terms of roster, it still didn't have Brawl's level of single player).

I think like, port Ultimate as a base, then just... A character pack or two (with a story mode) as DLC, and just keep porting it every console gen with character updates.

so no knuckles or tails i mean really they have had sonic since brawl but there is still only one sonic character that you can play as if nintendo will let me join i will make new characters from the sonic series

anyways best of luck

if this is the case, which im sure it is, you deserve the rest, also if you are still working on dlc characters i found a youtube video in which mentions totk link, its actually a really good character idea and i think fits well into the game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRzflRd6Ia4