Do you think Sakurai watches YouTube?

[ColdPizza02]

So I just watched Alax’s reaction to the Smash Bros Ultimate reveal, and he made it clear that almost everything he wanted to happen... Happened. This is but one example of dear old Daddy Sakurai appeasing his fans. If you need another example, I think I can sum it up in about one word: Ridley. Is this just a simple coinsidence? Or does Masahiro Sakurai somehow find the time to watch YouTube videos for constructive criticism on his games? Vote, so we can all get a grasp of each other’s opinions on this somewhat inconsequential matter. That would be just dandy, now wouldn’t it?

If I was a famous video game director with a massive fan base, I’d totally look for their opinions. Just sayin.

 

[Deleted member]

No and yes. He most certainly does not have time to do even on an average basis, the highest amount of time i'd put on him doing so is 20-30 minutes at best, and that is a far stretch, as busy as he is with small video's anyhow. But I am extremely confident he has watched the Smash Brothers Documentary before all the way through, checked smashboards once or twice, along with maybe a few other notable channel's. This is proven as he has retweeted etika's reaction to mewtwo in smash 4 on twitter. I do believe he has possibly watched a few Know your Moves & maybe ZeRo or something, but only so slightly when he has time for such things. It is a typical buisness metality. He is rather old overall, so he most likely likes to to see certain things, but probably just doesn't care for it very much. He most likely does it to know his fans better as all.

 

[ColdPizza02]

Etika’s Mewtwo reaction was pure gold, by the way.

 

[Venus of the Desert Bloom]

ColdPizza02 , please do not make two threads with the same topic. I closed your duplicate thread as it had zero replies and decided to keep this one open. Please keep this in mind when making threads or double posting. If you think you goofed when posting and made a multi thread/post, please contact a mod so we can fix it. Thanks.

And keeping in with the topic, I don’t watch reaction videos or commentary videos for that matter and I don’t ever really pay attention to popular YouTube channels but....that Max reaction video to Cloud was pretty priceless. I really did enjoy that like...3 years after it was posted. As for Sakurai, the guy is tremendously busy and I assume he also has a family life so I’m betting that he doesn’t and probably has a group who do that for him. Like gather information from said videos and pick out important parts for him to view.

 

[ColdPizza02]

Sorry. I was unsure whether or not it had been posted the first time. The interface on mobile is pretty janky.

 

[Venus of the Desert Bloom]

No problem. If you think something goofed up or see a multipost of yours, just contact us. Keep in mind that continued multi-posting after being notified multiple times will result in warnings or infractions.

I am a strictly mobile user and I seem to get around the site just fine. Even for my large sausage fingers.

 

[Thinkaman]

Sakurai's english is limited. He obviously browses Nico Nico and other Japanese sources, and clearly sees video content that makes it across the ocean virally (like reaction videos), but he is not reading our posts.

The monitor (balance) team has been said to read online commentary as a tertiary source. It is possible that certain things float to the top and are read by them, but I'd imagine their investigation is also predominantly Japanese.

 

[LancerStaff]

The dude doesn’t even watch real tournaments. There’s no way he watches Youtubers’ (or the equivalents’) reactions.

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

Very likely. I mean, considering YouTube is where the official Smash-related videos are up, and that he's commented on competitive play, plus him knowing who the various players are(he literally congratulated the winner of the Smash e3 tournament in person. He's well aware of these tournaments as is. And that was a pretty epic one despite using a demo. It wasn't among just some new players, but seasoned veterans from multiple games. Can't be a more "real tournament" than that, honestly).

 

[LancerStaff]

I mean he makes good public appearances but what he actually does with the games really craps on this narrative NoA cooked up. You can tell he doesn’t really care... Compare how he acts and how the games are changed to how Nogami and Yabuki do things and it’s obvious.

 

[Al-kīmiyā']

No, I don't think he watches Mang0's or Armada's channels. Who gives a **** about reaction videos? Etika makes money by acting like a jackass no matter who gets revealed.

 

[Diem]

It's clear that Sakurai has some sense of what the fanbase desires. He's been making the games faster and more technical than Brawl, he's been adding some of the most requested characters, and he seems to be paying attention to the professional scenes of both Smash 4 and Melee. He's doing his best to please everybody, and you can only do that if you really have a grasp on what most people want, and the talent to pull it off.

But I doubt he spends too much significant time on YouTube. With as much content as there is in every Smash game, and how much time he spends working on it, watching videos would be a considerable time sink he doesn't have much of an opening for. It's possible that, since he's on a (relatively) healthier work schedule this game, he might have more free time to look up people's reactions and such to get a better idea of how it went over.

Though since he was physically present at E3, I imagine he got plenty of direct and indirect feedback on the game and what people want.

 

[Sabrewulf238]

I'm sure he watches it, or has watched it...but I doubt it's a regular thing. (and it may be stuff unrelated to Smash)

He's not going to YouTube straight after a direct looking for an Etika reaction video if that's what you mean.

 

[Grizzexploder]

He's probably far too busy to do so, but may watch 1-2 videos if it gets enough attention (e.g. reaction videos on Twitter)

I wish we could get a Sakurai Reacts series (the best would be a Melee tournament match or something lol)

 

[Smashoperatingbuddy123]

He does when he have time

To prove it he said etikas reaction to mewtwo as dlc is the best one by far

 

[DarthEnderX]

I doubt he spends much of his time doing it. But I'm willing to be there are people on the staff that do, and that information gets filtered through them, to Sakurai.

To prove it he said etikas reaction to mewtwo as dlc is the best one by far

Which kinda proves that he doesn't, because anyone that watches reaction videos for more than 10 minutes can tell that Etikas reactions are fake as ****.

 

[smashingDoug]

I don’t think he would understand most of the YouTubers who want him to see his videos so no tbh. But does he browse the web? some Japanese websites mostly likely, he knew about Riley he knows about Waluigi

 

[NocturnalQuill]

I see a lot of people saying that he doesn't care, and that might have been true in the past (Brawl... *shudders), but I don't see how anyone can say that now. Ultimate looks like it was made by someone who went down the list of most requested features/mechanics changes and added everything they could. He's obviously going to consider who all is playing the game when he makes changes. Nintendo is going to want this game to appeal to the masses, not just the Melee community. Ultimate looks like it's the best possible compromise, with a few tweaks that I'm sure they'll go through with. The fact that Nintendo reps were directly talking to the pros and asking for feedback at the invitational is a very positive sign.

The man let us meme Ridley into smash, for christ's sake

 

[Al-kīmiyā']

I don't remember which of the invitational invitees said it, but apparently Sakurai didn't realize how broken Bayonetta was until he watched them play.

 

[Yarael-BJ-Poof]

anyone that watches reaction videos for more than 10 minutes can tell that Etikas reactions are fake as ****.

His heart rate went up to 187 during the E3 direct. I don't think its fake.

 

[DarthEnderX]

His heart rate went up to 187 during the E3 direct. I don't think its fake.

Yes, it's called physical exertion. If you jump up and down screaming and smashing things, your heart rate goes up regardless of whether you're actually excited about the thing you're watching or not.

I'm not saying he's not glad about the things he's seeing, but he is also clearly doing a bit. For ****'s sake, the guy sets up props around himself so he has things to smash when he does a fake freakout.

 

[Eternal phoenix Fire]

I met Etika a couple times. cool dude, respect the hustle. Buuuuuut lokey sus. He was looking for a party and I told him to ask the homie so he went over there and said "aye I heard you got the connect". wtfff bro.

First off, you gotta introduce yourself and state your business. Second, a "connect" in urban terminology, is a person of whom you can procure various...substances, from. I'm just like ***** are you serious lol. You're not wit it.

Anyyyywayyy...yeah man Sakurai watches YouTube all the time. Favorites all Melee combo videos. Shined Blind, I killed Mufasa, anything DBR.

 

[lordvaati]

I don't remember which of the invitational invitees said it, but apparently Sakurai didn't realize how broken Bayonetta was until he watched them play.

It was Armada, and he said she's gonna get straight up nerfed from that.

And yeah I'm sure Sakurai occasionally watches YT....that was why Story mode was never made for Sm4sh after all.

 

[osby]

And yeah I'm sure Sakurai occasionally watches YT....that was why Story mode was never made for Sm4sh after all.

Do you mean, aside from it needing a huge amount of development time that team likely wouldn't have, trying to make two balanced games at the same time?

 

[Cyberfire]

He probably just see’s stuff that goes viral amongst the Japanese community, like Etika’s reactions. I very much doubt he spends time watching Know Your Moves or Mang0 streams like some of you are implying!