Summary

  • Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of Super Smash Bros., announced he will stop uploading videos to his YouTube channels in 2024.
  • Sakurai's videos covered topics like game development principles and explanations of Super Smash Bros. Fighter reveals.
  • While some fans see Sakurai's departure from YouTube as a return to full-time game development, his next project remains unknown.

Masahiro Sakurai, the creator and director of the Super Smash Bros. Series and head of Sora Ltd., announced that he will stop uploading videos to his YouTube channels later in 2024. The announcement from Sakurai came in community posts on his English and Japanese YouTube channels, which he started following the end of production on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Sakurai started his YouTube journey in August 2022. The content of Sakurai's videos went over topics ranging from the basic principles of video game development to brief but detailed explanations of how Super Smash Bros. Fighter reveals were handled by him and other members of the development team. With over 571,000 subscribers on the English-language channel "Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games" and over 576,000 on the Japanese channel, Sakurai amassed over a million combined YouTube subscribers across two different languages.

However, followers of Sakurai's YouTube channels will not have much more content to look forward to in 2024. Though Sakurai gave an update at the end of 2023 that debunked retirement rumors and reassured gamers that he is still working on video games, his YouTube days will come to an end later in the year. Sakurai made a YouTube community post to send belated New Year's wishes to viewers, and to state that he would wrap up YouTube uploads at a later date. Sakurai encouraged viewers to stay tuned for more updates. A short time before the community post, Sakurai posted a video in which he stated that game developers should allow their players to skip and pause cutscenes in story-intense games. Sakurai used Final Fantasy 16 and Cyberpunk 2077 as examples of games that allow players to either skim through dialogue one line at a time or outright skip a scene by holding down a button.

Reception to the community post by the Super Smash Bros. Creator was mostly bittersweet. In the comments, some YouTube users took Sakurai's impending YouTube departure as a sign that he is returning to full-time game development soon and looked forward to seeing what will come of it down the line.

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 stay tuned!

At the time of writing, it is not known if Sakurai's YouTube channel will be deleted or if he will keep the videos up for archival purposes. Nevertheless, whether Sakurai's next project is another Super Smash Bros. Game or something else entirely will be worth paying attention to.

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Super Smash Bros Franchise Tag
Super Smash Bros.
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Creation Year
1999
Developer(s)
HAL Laboratory, Sora Ltd., Bandai Namco Studios, Game Arts
Publisher(s)
Nintendo
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Super Smash Bros is a Nintendo-exclusive 3D action fighting and brawling game starring a roster of beloved Nintendo and third-party characters. Taking place across a plethora of arenas, players duke it out in real-time as their favorite characters.

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