Super Smash Bros. Creator Sakurai About His Work Style, Unsustainable AAA Development
Blog Andrew Joseph 24 Jun , 2025 0
Back in March this year, the gaming industry experienced Masahiro Sakurai won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 30th AMD Awards. In an interview ITMedia Business Online Conducted at the time (released recently Yahoo Japan), Sakurai reveals why he doesn't hire people, reflects on changes in the gaming industry and touches on the potential use of generative AI in development.
After working at Game Dev Studio Hal Laboratories from 1989 to 2003, the creators of Kirby and Smash Bros., two of Nintendo's large franchisees, Sakurai became the creator of freelancers, founding its own company, Sora Ltd. in 2005. He created the award-winning YouTube channel in 2022.Masahiro Sakurai Creates Game,” he shared insights and advice on all aspects of making the game.
Sakurai's approach is different from that of many game creators who have always set up their own companies. “When game creators become presidents of companies, they have a hard time engaging in creative activities adequately,” Sakurai explained. “There is a conflict between making fun games and making management decisions – the problem is that the responsibilities of being president are overwhelmed, so it's hard to focus on the important parts, game creation.”
This led Sakura to take his current approach, which involves creating games without directly hiring or managing any employees. “Basically, I work with other gaming companies to avoid having to manage the company,” Sakurai explained. “Thus, this approach works well. I'm able to continue to be creative and focus on doing things without getting very busy running a company.”
However, Sakuragi pointed out that his approach is not without challenges. Working with different game developers means Sakurai has to “build trusted relationships and work styles from scratch every time. So, I think it’s necessary to have a certain degree of flexibility.”
According to Sakura, one of the most important elements when working with the team on a new project for the first time is to make sure everyone is on the same page and have a clear, shared vision for the game. “I make sure many employees can share the same information at the same time, regardless of their job, or they are designers or programmers.” While this requires more time and planning, Sakurai said that in his experience, this approach “reduces the risk of information gaps” and misunderstandings. “Instead, if I just convey my own ideas to the producers and they assign the work to others, there will be some kind of misunderstanding, and there will be even a 180-degree difference (on the intended intention).
But when asked if his approach is best for the entire gaming industry, Sakurai hesitated. “It depends on this person. As for me, I built my track record and trust by working on the titles of Kirby and Smash Bros. If you don’t have this, then the job wouldn’t come if you don’t have any track record at all. Well, it’s a way of working to get more allies by creating great games.
Sakurai continues to highlight another problem in the current gaming industry, which may make it difficult for individuals to break through in the same way as in the past as Auteurs. “I feel like the location of the game director itself is becoming increasingly rare these days. In this case, few people can find someone who can take charge of the studio with hundreds of people,” Sakurai said. “There are a lot of people who want to make games or are making games, but there is a lack of a game director that can manage a large number of employees’ projects.”
Sakura believes that expanding the segmentation of game development to professional roles is the reason for the lack of a game director whose “all-round” background is the “all-round” background needed to oversee large-scale projects. “In the past, people would go from being a graphic artist to a planner and then to becoming a director,” Sakurai explained. “But, nowadays, it's just a graphic division into models, effects, textures, etc. I feel it's hard to develop into an all-rounder in an environment like this. I feel like this growing specialization and subdivision leads to a lack of directors who look at things from a broad perspective.”
Sakurai suggests that it is important for people to understand their personality and develop this accordingly. “I don’t think anyone will follow the same path as me, but I’m sure there will be some people breaking through in other directions.” In other words, instead of trying to match or compete with the work and achievements of the creators in front of you, hone your strengths and focus on what you can bring. “I believe every creator should go out of his own path.” Sakura insisted.
Sakurai concluded that both AAA projects and indie games are facing difficult situations. “I think it’s become unsustainable to continue producing large games on the scale the company is doing right now because it takes too much work,” he said before suggesting generation of AI as a potential tool to help solve this problem.
“(…) The only effective breakthrough I can think of right now is generative AI. I think we are reaching the point where (AAA Studios) have to change the way they work by using AI to be more productive. I think we are in an era where only companies that successfully respond to these changes can survive.”
Sakurai pointed out that independent champions face their own challenges, one of which is the huge competition. “Indie games appeal to their own freedom and creativity, but they still need a lot of luck, effort, Poland and outstanding elements to succeed in the market.”
Sakurai is currently working on Kirby Aviation Rider For the Nintendo Switch 2.
Verity Townsend is a Japanese freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for Game News website Automaton West. She also wrote articles about Japanese culture and film for various publications.