Super Smash Bros. Director Doesn’t See How the Franchise Can Get Any Bigger Than Ultimate

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Nearly five years have passed since Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was released on the Nintendo Switch. Since then, fans have been wondering if a potential new entry in the series could ever hope to top what Ultimate has done. In his latest video on creating video games, Series director Masahiro Sakurai has spoken his thoughts and doesn’t see how the popular fighting game franchise can get any bigger than that.

Sakurai pondered once again about the future of the Smash Bros. series now that Ultimate has given fans most every character and stage they could ever want in a fighting game, from Banjo-Kazooie to Heihachi Mishima from Tekken to even Sora from Kingdom Hearts.

He admits that he’s skeptical about the development team creating another Super Smash Bros. title that goes above and beyond what Ultimate did, given the strenuous circumstances his dev team went through to add more content to the game during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As for what comes next for the Smash Bros. series, even I’m not sure,” Sakurai said. “I feel we truly succeeded in making people happy with this game, but now that Smash Bros. has grown to be monstrous in size, I’d say it’s difficult to imagine an increase of this magnitude happening again.”

He added, “Every time, we managed to make a game that I had previously thought impossible, so I can’t say for certain there won’t be another, but I do think it would be difficult to push it any further than we have.”

Sakurai previously mentioned that he can’t imagine a Smash Bros. game without him, given that he’s been semi-retired from game development for a year. With the prospect of the Switch 2 (or whatever Nintendo’s new console system ends up being called) on the horizon, there’s a chance that a new Smash Bros. game would be developed for it.

Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.