The director of Nintendo’s crossover fighting game, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Masahiro Sakurai, may already be working on the series’ next installment.
Speaking during his latest video on game creators, Super Smash Bros Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai mentioned that, in addition to making content for his YouTube channel, he’s been working on games for the time being, suggesting that a new project of his is already in development.
The videos on Sakurai’s YouTube channel are likely recorded a few months in advance. Therefore, this particular video may have been from somewhere during May and September, 2023. Towards the end of the video, he mentioned that he is still actively involved in developing games. Given this information along with the recent job listing at Studio 2/Studio S for a 2D side-scrolling action game, it’s likely that that the development of the next entry in the Smash Bros series is currently in progress. This may be the reason behind Sakurai’s reduced YouTube video frequency from three videos per week to two since last summer.
Studio 2/Studio S is a new internal development team at Bandai Namco that is currently working on 2D and 3D action games commissioned by Nintendo, based on its job listing. The listing suggests that the 3D game is likely to be a remaster or a remake of an existing Nintendo title.
Not a whole lot is known about either game, though the job description in an earlier listing for this project mentioned HD remastering of deformed 3D backgrounds, porting of existing 3D background data, creation of deformed background assets Incorporation of data into in-house game engine, material adjustment using in-house game engine, creation of lighting in in-house game engines, and post-effects adjustment in in-house game engine. Meanwhile, the job description for the 2D game mentioned the construction of stage specifications, level designs etc. for side-view action games, suggesting that it may be the next Smash Bros title.
