For over two decades, Masahiro Sakurai has poured himself into Super Smash Bros. with the quiet conviction that each installment might be his last — and yet he has always returned. Now, with the final fighter added to Ultimate's extraordinary roster of eighty-six characters, the series stands at a genuine crossroads: not one of market demand or fan desire, but of singular human will and the irreplaceable nature of a creative vision no one else has yet been trusted to carry.
Sakurai: No Smash Bros. Sequel Plans, But 'Never Say Never'
I can't say definitively that this is the last Smash.
Mark
So Sakurai says no sequel plans, but he's leaving the door open. What does that actually mean in practice?
Mimi
It means he's being honest about where he is right now—there's no active development, no team assembled. But he's also aware of his own history. He's thought each Smash game was the last one, and then made another anyway.
Luke
Right, but that's different from saying a sequel is likely. He's saying he doesn't know. That's not the same as "it's coming."
Mimi
True. And he's also naming the real problem: Smash Ultimate has eighty-six fighters. How do you make a sequel that doesn't feel like a step backward?
Mark
That's the tension, isn't it? The game succeeded by being comprehensive. A sequel almost has to be less comprehensive.
Luke
Unless they find a way to expand further, which he seems skeptical about. He said they've "reached our limits in many ways."
Mimi
Which brings us to the succession question. He can't imagine making another Smash without being involved, and he hasn't found anyone who could replace him.
Mark
Is that a real constraint, or is he being protective of his creation?
Luke
Probably both. But the fact is: no one else has ever directed one. No one else has made the fighter selection decisions. That's not nothing. It's a genuine knowledge gap.
Mimi
And after twenty-two years, it's reasonable to wonder if he wants to keep doing this forever. He hasn't decided to step back, but he's clearly thinking about it.
Mark
So the sequel question is really a Sakurai question.
Mimi
Exactly. The game's future depends on his choices, not on whether fans want more.
El Pulso
- The arrival of Sora as Ultimate's final downloadable fighter in October 2021 quietly closed a chapter, leaving the franchise's future suspended in uncertainty.
- Sakurai openly acknowledges the series has hit a ceiling — eighty-six fighters is a summit that makes any sequel feel like it must either shrink or somehow surpass the impossible.
- A deeper tension simmers beneath the content question: Sakurai has searched for a successor and found no one he trusts to carry the franchise forward without him.
- The paradox tightens — the more singular and author-driven a creative work becomes, the more fragile its future grows when that author steps back.
- For now, the door to a new Smash Bros. is neither open nor closed, but held ajar by one man's unresolved relationship with a series he has never quite been able to call finished.
For over two decades, Masahiro Sakurai has poured himself into Super Smash Bros. with the quiet conviction that each installment might be his last — and yet he has always returned. Now, with the final fighter added to Ultimate's extraordinary roster of eighty-six characters, the series stands at a genuine crossroads: not one of market demand or fan desire, but of singular human will and the irreplaceable nature of a creative vision no one else has yet been trusted to carry.
Masahiro Sakurai has been the guiding force behind Super Smash Bros. since 1999, and with the October 2021 arrival of Sora from Kingdom Hearts as the final downloadable fighter, the question of what comes next has grown impossible to ignore. His answer is careful and honest: no sequel is in development, but he will not declare the series over.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate launched on Nintendo Switch in 2018 and grew into something unprecedented — eighty-six playable characters drawn from across video game history, expanded through years of paid fighter passes and updates. Sora's addition felt like a natural capstone, a fan-beloved character closing out an already monumental undertaking.
Yet Sakurai's own history resists finality. Speaking with Famitsu, he acknowledged that he has approached every Smash installment believing it would be his last — and has always returned. The scale of Ultimate, however, presents a real creative problem: the series has, in his own words, reached its limits, and any sequel would force an uncomfortable choice between a smaller roster that disappoints fans or an expansion that somehow surpasses what already exists.
The more personal constraint is succession. Sakurai has begun thinking seriously about whether someone else could one day direct the franchise, but has yet to find a candidate he trusts. No one else has ever made the defining decisions about Smash Bros., and he sees no clear path for the series to continue without him. The future of one of gaming's most beloved franchises rests not on audience demand — which is abundant — but on the unresolved question of whether one irreplaceable creator will choose to continue, and whether he can ever find someone worthy of carrying what he has built.
Masahiro Sakurai, the architect of Super Smash Bros. since 1999, has spent the last two decades building one of gaming's most expansive fighting franchises. Now, with the final downloadable fighter—Sora from Kingdom Hearts—arriving in October 2021, the natural question hangs in the air: what comes next? Sakurai's answer is measured and honest: there is no sequel in development, but he refuses to close the door entirely.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate launched on Nintendo Switch in 2018 and has since accumulated twelve additional fighters through paid expansions, alongside numerous stage additions and cosmetic updates. The game now contains eighty-six playable characters spanning video game history—an unprecedented roster that represents the culmination of more than two decades of iterative design. When Sakurai announced Sora as the final addition during his October presentation, it felt like a natural endpoint to the Fighters Pass expansions, a fan-requested character serving as the capstone to an already massive undertaking.
But Sakurai's own creative history complicates any definitive statement about finality. In an interview with Famitsu magazine, he acknowledged a pattern that has defined his career: with each Smash Bros. installment, he approaches it believing it will be his last, yet he has continued making new ones. "I can't say definitively that 'This is the last Smash,'" he explained. The franchise's sheer scale, however, presents a genuine obstacle to continuation. Sakurai recognized that the series has "reached our limits in many ways," and any sequel would force an uncomfortable choice: either disappoint fans by reducing the fighter roster and other content, or find a way to expand beyond what Ultimate has already achieved.
The deeper constraint, though, is personal. After two decades steering the series, Sakurai has begun considering succession—not because he has decided to step away, but because he recognizes the question matters. He admitted to thinking seriously about whether someone else could eventually take the helm. The problem is structural: no one besides Sakurai has ever directed a Smash Bros. game or made decisions about which fighters to include. He has attempted to identify a potential successor, but found none he felt confident could maintain the series' standards. "I don't see any way for Smash Bros. to be produced without my involvement," he said plainly.
This dependency creates a paradox. The more successful and author-driven a creative work becomes, the harder it is to hand off. Sakurai understands this tension acutely. He knows that entrusting the franchise to someone without his track record and vision carries real risk—not just to the game's quality, but to its commercial viability. The series' future, then, remains genuinely uncertain. It does not hinge on market demand or fan appetite; those are clearly present. It hinges on whether Sakurai himself chooses to continue, and on whether he can ever find someone capable of stepping into his role. For now, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate remains available on Nintendo Switch, and the question of what follows remains open.
Citas Notables
I'm not thinking about making a sequel. That said, I always think that this will be the last Smash Bros. I will ever make, and yet I've continued to make new installments.— Masahiro Sakurai, in interview with Famitsu magazine
It's clear that we have reached our limits in many ways, and we will need to think about whether it's worth disappointing fans by cutting down on the number of fighters just in order to release the next installment.— Masahiro Sakurai
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