Sakurai recently uploaded a video to his YouTube channel. Meant as the channel’s final upload, the video also touches on the next project Sakurai and his team at Sora Ltd. 

Sakurai says he initially wrote the proposal for his next project in July 2021, and that though the project had been greenlit by October that year, the plan was to begin development by April of 2022, with time required to “assemble the right team.” As per him, the game started production on time, which means it has been in development for roughly two and a half years at this point. 

Details on what the game is are scarce, as mentioned previously. Whether it will be a new Super Smash Bros. game or something else entirely is, of course, the question on everyone’s mind. If it is the former, it should also be interesting to see what form it takes. 

Either way, in the video, Sakurai stated that the title would be “announced sooner or later”, so hopefully it won’t be too long before we have some more concrete information. 

Journalist Mikhail Klimentov has claimed that Riot Games was working on a platform fighting game codenamed Pool Party that was inspired by Super Smash Bros. before cancelling it earlier this year. Specifically, the company was aiming to focus the game on esports and take cues from Super Smash Bros. Melee in particular, and had a team of 70-80 people working on it until its cancellation in May.

Klimentov claims that though Pool Party was originally envisioned as a hardcore platform fighter with a keen emphasis placed on esports, Riot Games leadership was alarmed by the failure of MultiVersus, WB Games’ free-to-play Smash-inspired platform fighter. Over the course of Pool Party’s development, attempts were made to introduce more casual elements, much to the dismay of many in the development team, including even party game elements.

Riot Games’ senior comms director Joe Hixson said on the report, “We always have a number of projects in various phases of R&D, and spinning projects up and down happens multiple times a year.”

Klimentov’s report claims that about half of Pool Party’s development team received offers to be reassigned to other projects within Riot Games following the title’s cancellation, with others looking for roles elsewhere through the company’s internal job board.

That’s a question that has been asked more than a few times in recent years, not only by fans and critics, but also by series creator Masahiro Sakurai himself. In a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Sakurai touched on the topic once again, saying that, at least as things stand right now, it’s hard for him to imagine Smash Bros. continuing without him, since there’s no one available yet who can serve as a suitable replacement- which is something he’s mentioned in the past as well.

“The question is, what happens next time? I mean whatever comes after Smash Bros. Ultimate,” Sakurai said (transcription via Nintendo Everything). “One option would be to separate the series itself from the original creator. But for now, at least, I can’t really imagine a Smash Bros. title without me. You might think that’s a natural stance for someone in my role, but I say so speaking objectively. I feel the same way president Iwata did when we formed the team for Smash Bros. Brawl. At present, we don’t have someone who can simply take the reigns.”

Sakurai went on to muse on what the next Smash Bros. game might look like. After acknowledging that, given the massive popularity and success the series enjoys, it’s fair to assume that there probably will be another new Smash game at some point in the future, he said that it’s hard to nail down right now just what it’ll end up being. According to Sakurai, it’s going to be a while before he and his team can figure out just what comes next for Smash.

“Smash Bros. is a massive, important title for Nintendo, so it’s fair to assume there will be another one at some point, but it’s going to take some work to figure out exactly how to make that happen,” he said. “For my part, I’d like to keep working with Nintendo however I’m able.”

In the past, Sakurai has said a few times that the next Super Smash Bros. game is likely going to have a much smaller roster of fighters than Ultimate did.

How long it’ll be before we hear something concrete about the future of Smash remains to be seen, but with it now having been nearly two years since the release of the last DLC fighter for Ultimate, the apetite for more Smash Bros. is certainly increasing amongst the audiences once more. Either way, as Sakurai himself says, sooner or later, it’s fair to assume that there almost definitely will be a new Smash game at some point in the future.

Spotted by IGN, Sakurai’s latest video has him talking about Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which was released on the Nintendo Wii, and its online multiplayer implementation. In the video, Sakurai states that he does not feel that online multiplayer is a good fit for the Smash Bros. franchise.

“I don’t think online play and Smash Bros. are a very good fit for each other,” says Sakurai. “One of the best parts of Smash Bros. is how players can become champions among their friends. But being subjected to online competition can cause people to lose confidence, which isn’t great.”

Sakurai also goes on to talk about the implementation of multiplayer in the game, and how it uses full synchronous communication compared to the asynchronous communication used in Mario Kart games with online multiplayer. Full synchronous communication means that the timing for all player input is synchronised in every single frame.

Because of the network demands of Smash Bros. Sakurai states that online play in the games can often be patchy unless you’re playing with others not only in the same country, but in the same region as well.

Sakurai also speaks about other aspects of Super Smash Bros. Brawl in the video, including single-player content like the Subspace Emissary game mode. You can check out the video below.

For a while now, people have wondered what direction Super Smash Bros. will take in the future, and how it will ever be able to live up to the impossibly high standards set by Ultimate. According to series creator and director Masahiro Sakurai though, if there is a new Smash game, it shouldn’t even try to do that.

Speaking in an interview with The Verge, when asked about the future of the series, Sakurai said – echoing similar statements he’s made on multiple occasions in the recent past – that any new Smash game will need to have a smaller roster- though of course, he also acknowledges that the development team will have to figure out whether or not fans will be pleased with that.

“I think we’ve reached the limit, at least in terms of volume of content and fighters,” Sakurai said. “Basically, if I were to have the opportunity to work on another Super Smash Bros. game, that means we would have to shrink the roster, but we need to think about whether fans would be pleased about that.”

Sakurai also went on to say that if he and Nintendo do continue forward with the series, they’ll have to figure out a way to de-emphasize his involvement in it and make it so that it isn’t wholly reliant on a single person’s vision the way it has been up until now. According to Sakurai, that’s crucial for the series’ longevity- this, too, is something he’s spoken about in the past.

“I’ve been doing too much of the work myself, so I’d need to resolve that, too,” he said. “The current Super Smash Bros. has too much of my personality poured into it. In order for a long-time series to continue thriving today, we need to think about eliminating the series’ dependence on just one person’s vision.

“Of course, this is the way it is now because we weren’t successful in splitting the vision between multiple people before. This would be a challenge for the future and something that needs to be discussed with Nintendo, if there were to be a next installment in the Super Smash Bros. series.”

One thing’s for sure- Smash Ultimate has more than enough going on to keep players happy for quite some time to come, so Nintendo probably won’t be rushing to make another new entry in the series anytime soon.

Of course, with the critical and commercial success the fighter has enjoyed, there are always going to be questions about the series’ future. But then again, given the very nature of Smash Ultimate, one also can’t help but wonder- where does the series even go after here?

It seems that’s very much the question on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director and series creator Masahiro Sakurai’s mind as well. Speaking in an interview with Famitsu (via VGC), Sakurai said that he currently has no plans for a sequel. He continued that though he cannot definitively say that Ultimate is the last game in the series, there are also many decisions that need to be made about how to take the series forward without disappointing the fans.

“I’m not thinking about a sequel,” he said. “But I can’t say that this is definitely the last Smash Bros. I need to think about whether we should release another Smash Bros. game at the risk of disappointing the users.”

Meanwhile, Sakurai also said that he’s unsure if the series could continue without him, and said that though there have been attempts at handing it off to someone else in the past, they haven’t worked out (which is an interesting new nugget of information in and of itself).

“I can’t see any way to produce Smash Bros. without me,” he said. “To be honest, I’d like to leave it to someone else, and I’ve actually tried that, but it hasn’t worked out.”

He concluded: “If we’re going to continue with the series, Nintendo and I need to discuss and seriously consider how to make it a success.”

Of course, this isn’t the first time that Sakurai has talked about life after Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Back in 2019, he admitted that if there were to be a new Smash Bros. game in the future, there was no way it would be able to replicate Ultimate’s roster. Meanwhile, a few months later, he said that were no “no guarantees” he would continue making games once support for Smash Ultimate had wrapped up. Read more on that through here.