Dude what? We haven’t even made a return to Melee form yet. There are thousands of characters to add. Look at the modded Melee on dolphin if you need pointers, fans always have more vision anyway.
This is why its good to read the article instead of trusting click bait titles. He actually said after the strenuous development cycle of Ultimate, he thinks it would be unlikely to see another similar increase in magnitude for the next entry.
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.”
Also, while some fans do have more vision, they also have far less restrictions. It would be foolish to accuse Sakurai of lacking vision.
There is much more they could do. While building heavily off of what they already have. People clearly want a true competitive successor to Melee and with the input delays on new controllers and wireless devices people aren’t liking it. They have a lot they could do with minimal effort. Just because you once had vision doesn’t mean you can’t lose it. If modders can make this, why is Nintendo throwing the towel in? He is speaking of “magnetitude” like the game needs loads of content. When in reality Smash Bros fans are competitively motivated. Your share from the article enlightens nothing.
Take from it what you will, but imho, him talking about magnitude enlightens, as you said, that he was talking about content quantity.
The discussion regarding where to take the series in terms of balance wasn’t even mentioned. Nintendo throwing in the towel also wasn’t mentioned. Neither was the idea that there aren’t other possible characters that could be added. All that was discussed is that another entry with a similar increase in magnitude is unlikely according to the lead game designer.
From where I’m sitting, you jumped to conclusions over a misquote, and then after you recognized the actual quote was most likely about another similar jump in content quantity, you doubled down on making assumptions.
Maybe Smash does need to refocus on their competitive audience, maybe not. But that has nothing to do with the interview in question.
Thats my point, it doesnt need to be bigger. It needs to foster its competitive side. Him focusing on “bigger” in my opinion says he doesn’t know what keeps people coming back to Smash. Its the competition. You can side eye me with the article all you want, but Sakurai has been saying Ultimate is the last since its release.
Hey man, I’m not trying to “side eye you with an article”, and I’m happy to let you pontificate as to where the series should go (even if I think you are making sweeping assumptions based off a single comment in an interview). You seem to be very passionate about the series, and maybe you have a lot of insight I’m lacking. It’s possible that you are spot on, and that trying to make a “melee” successor would do as well if not better.
That being said, it’s been repeatedly reported that Ultimate was a staggeringly massive project, so when he says he doesn’t see how it could increase in magnitude, it’s fair to take that at face value as him talking about increasing the amount of content. And it’s fair that if anyone knows the likelihood of seeing another jump of this magnitude, it would be Sakurai. You are free to be an incredulous arm chair game designer, but it kind of just comes across as whiny and entitled.
I also can’t agree with your claim that Sakurai doesn’t know what keeps people coming back to Smash. Ultimate is the most financially successful entry in the series history, selling 31.7 million copies (dwarfing the 2nd place entry Brawl’s 13.32 million copies, and the critically acclaimed Melee’s 7.41 million copies). So focusing on content quantity seems to have paid off for Nintendo. At least it shows that the focus on “bigger” didn’t hurt people buying Smash, even if you don’t think it will have the long term sustainability that Melee did. And when you are trying to make money selling games, hours played is less important than dollars made. source
To add to that, Ultimate had an average play time per copy sold of 88+ hours at the release Sora (obviously it is likely that this is higher now). So your previous claim that “people aren’t liking it” seems a bit misinformed. source
2 additional frames of input lag definitely will upset the hyper competitive side of the community. Didn’t hurt sales, but I’m sure it upset the diehards. Also, thanks for sharing I guess?
Your linked article regarding Ultimate being the last is again a hyperbolic misquote of the same interview we were discussing in this post. (Albeit a less egregious misquote, as the full title is “Creator of Super Smash Bros. Feels Ultimate Is the Last Stop of the Series, at Least for Now”, which is literally every game until they release another) The article even has a line saying his concerns are only in really in reference to pushing the series further in scope.
he doesn’t definitively rule out another entry, but implies that it would be difficult to push the series further in terms of content and ambition.
It’s cool that you want a return to Melee, I’m sure plenty of people do. I don’t really have an opinion on that. But as a person who has seen multiple game series ignore the hardcore audience in favor of mass appeal, I’d say it’s best to keep expectations in check. Especially since Ultimate told Nintendo the direction the series went in is the financially correct one. But heck, sounds like the modding community is more in line with your wish list anyway!
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