Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai has often said that as long as people keep demanding Smash and Nintendo keeps asking him to make more games in the series, he will keep coming back to it. But apparently, there are no guarantees that he will even make another new game after his work on the upcoming second batch of DLC characters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is done and dusted.
Writing recently in his Famitsu column (via Event Hubs) Sakurai said that he has nothing lined up after the upcoming DLCs, and that there’s “no guarantees” he’ll make another game once his currently ongoing work has been wrapped up.
“That’s how I approach game development whenever I start a new project,” Sakurai wrote. “Though, honestly, there’s no guarantee I’ll keep making games after this. Right now, all I’m thinking about is the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC development. Once that’s done, I actually have absolutely nothing lined up.”
Sakurai is a person who has garnered a reputation for obsessive attention to detail, which he achieves by overworking himself to the point that he sometimes goes to work with an IV drip, so if there’s a person who deserves some (much-needed) rest, it’s gotta be him- especially now that he’s adhered to the last “mission” that was given to him by the late Satoru Iwata.
That said, it’s highly unlikely that Nintendo will never make a Smash game ever again, so we can’t really say anything for sure yet. Sakurai himself has talked about what future Smash games could look like, and he’s suggested that after Ultimate, the series might end up opting for something of a change in direction.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s second Fighters Pack will contain six characters, and will be the final content the game receives. It was originally scheduled to be wrapped up by December 2021, but with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it seems that timeline might get pushed back.
