Source Gaming founder and ex-owner PushDustIn and translator Kody NOKOLO have released the second part of their translation of Smash director Masahiro Sakurai's final Famitsu column. Where the first part looks back on the development for Smash Ultimate's DLC, the second part is largely focused on the future of the franchise.
In the column, Sakurai discusses the possibility that Smash Ultimate may be the final Super Smash Bros. game. At the moment, Sakurai isn't thinking about making another Smash game, though he always tends to approach each Smash game as if it's his last, so a future title is still a possibility. He also wonders whether it would even be worth it to release another Smash game—a future title would likely have a smaller roster than Ultimate, and less content in general, something bound to leave many fans disappointed.
There's also the question of how easily the series could continue without him. Sakurai notes that he's played such a central role in the planning for each Smash game that it would be hard to find someone who could oversee every facet of the game's development in the same way he did. While this isn't mentioned in the column, this is likely compounded by the fact that the rest of the development team has changed so much between installments. Much of Melee's team was unavailable for Brawl's development, and Bandai-Namco's fighting game division took over from HAL Labs for the development of Smash for 3DS/Wii U and Smash Ultimate.
To hear more about Sakurai's thoughts on the challenges that would come with continuing the Smash series without his involvement, we highly encourage you to read the full translation at Source Gaming.
Credits:
Editing: @Sari
Graphics: @Zerp
Special Thanks: @PushDustIn and Kody NOKOLO for translating the Famitsu article
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