Skip to content

Smash Bros. Creator Masahiro Sakurai Supposedly Confirms He’s “Semi-Retired”

  • by

Masahiro Sakurai
Image: Nintendo

In a recent interview with Denfaminicogamer, the legendary video game developer Masahiro Sakurai apparently confirmed that he is now semi-retired.

He elaborated on this, mentioning how he worked on the Super Smash Bros. series for around nine years between the 3DS/Wii U and Switch release, along with the DLC updates. Sakurai feels he’s got to draw the line somewhere, or else he’ll simply run out of time to live his own life.

Here’s the summary of Sakurai’s latest update, courtesy of a translation by PushDustin:

“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.”

Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard Sakurai talk about his future now that Smash Ultimate is complete. Previously he mentioned how a new entry in the Smash series would be a massive undertaking.

Development on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate wrapped up not long after the reveal of the DLC fighter Sora in October last year. Although major updates have finished, Nintendo is still releasing amiibo for the game – with Kazuya and Sephiroth scheduled to arrive next month. These will be followed by Pyra and Mythra.

.