Masahiro Sakurai

Masahiro Sakurai.

Masahiro Sakurai (桜井 政博 Sakurai Masahiro) is a Japanese video game developer, directer, and writer. The owner of Sora Ltd. and former HAL Laboratory employee, he is best known as the creator of the Kirby series, and creator and current director of the Super Smash Bros. series.

Biography

Sakurai began his video game career as an employee of HAL Laboratory. At the age of 19, he created and directed his first title, Kirby's Dream Land.

Sakurai continued to work at HAL and direct titles until August 2003, when he announced his resignation from the company, becoming a freelance developer. He cited the circumstances surrounding development of his most recent title, Kirby Air Ride, as the reason for his departure, criticizing both Nintendo and the industry as a whole for the increased focus on game sequels (later coining the term "sequelization").

After his departure, Sakurai worked with Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Q Entertainment to develop Meteos, a Nintendo DS puzzle game released in 2005. Later, on September 30, 2005, he announced the formation of his own company, Sora Ltd.; rather than develop its own games, Sora was founded as a way of contracting Sakurai for work on other companies' games. Around the same time, Sakurai also became a writer for Famitsu Weekly, writing his own weekly column mostly about his experiences both playing and developing games.

In 2009, Sakurai and Satoru Iwata founded a new Nintendo subsidiary, Project Sora, with the sole purpose of developing Kid Icarus: Uprising. The studio was closed in June 2012, after the game's release.

In February 2013, during development of his next titles, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, Sakurai developed calcific tendinitis in his right shoulder.

Works published by Nintendo

Game	Year	Console	Role / credit
Kirby's Dream Land	1992	Game Boy	Director / Chief Designer
Kirby's Adventure	1993	NES	Director, Designer
Kirby Super Star	1996	SNES	Director
Super Smash Bros.	1999	Nintendo 64	Director
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards	2000	Nintendo 64	Voice actor
Super Smash Bros. Melee	2001	Nintendo GameCube	Director
Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land	2002	Game Boy Advance	Director
Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade	2002	Game Boy Advance	Special Thanks
Kirby Air Ride	2003	Nintendo GameCube	Director
Kirby & the Amazing Mirror	2004	Game Boy Advance	Special Advisor
Meteos	2005	Nintendo DS	Designer
Super Smash Bros. Brawl	2008	Game Boy	Director, Music Arrangement, Character Voice*
Kid Icarus: Uprising	2012	Nintendo 3DS	Director & Scenario
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS	2014	Nintendo 3DS	Director, Character Voice*
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U	2014	Wii U	Director, Character Voice*

External links

• Masahiro Sakurai on Wikipedia
• Masahiro Sakurai on WiKirby
• Masahiro Sakurai on SmashWiki
• Masahiro Sakurai on Super Mario Wiki