Masahiro Sakurai
| Masahiro Sakurai |
| Date of Birth: August 3, 1970 |
| Home Town: Unknown |
| Occupation: Director |
| Bestselling Game: Super Smash Bros. Melee |
| Development Teams |
| HAL Laboratory - Q Entertainment |
| Sora Ltd. |
| Key Franchises |
| Kirby - Super Smash Bros. |
Masahiro Sakurai was a game designer at HAL Laboratory as well as a columnist for the popular Japanese magazine, Famitsu. Currently, he is running his own company, Sora Ltd., as well as a division focusing on Nintendo games, Project Sora.
Biography[edit]
Sakurai began making video games at HAL Laboratory. At 19, he came up with the concept of Kirby and was soon directing his first title: Kirby's Dream Land.
He continued his work at HAL until August 5, 2003. He said that he was tired of making sequels, did not like HAL's structure and wanted more freedom. He announced this a few days after an interview criticizing the circumstances Kirby Air Ride was developed under. He stated that he wanted the Kirby series to continue, which it has, and he harbored no resentment toward his old characters or HAL Laboratory.
Shortly after his departure, he began working at Q Entertainment. He and Tetsuya Mizuguchi collaborated on a puzzle game, Meteos.
On September 30th, 2005, he founded Sora Ltd.. Sakurai returned to the Smash Bros. series by developing Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii through Sora. He lived in an apartment in Tokyo near the studio where the game was being developed. During this time, Sakurai also ran the offical Brawl website and released gradual updates up to the game's release which slowly revealed various details about the game, and he eventually also released a post which clarified details about the game's plot following its release.
In the aftermath of Brawl's release, Sakurai and Iwata reached an agreement under which Project Sora was started as a division of Sora Ltd. which acted as a first party of Nintendo. Project Sora's first project was Kid Icarus: Uprising for the 3DS, which Sakurai acted as director for.
Voice Acting[edit]
Sakurai has also done some voice acting for his games, as he has voiced King Dedede in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards as well as Super Smash Bros. Brawl (in which he was uncredited, but admitted such on the official website).
Trivia[edit]
- He has several cats that he is fond of.