The success of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has been undeniable. The game is the climax of the popular series so far, bringing together every fighter who has appeared in any version since Smash's N64 debut. This gigantic roster gives Ultimate's base game 74 fighters. The game's DLC Fighters Passes have also garnered a lot of attention and excitement from fans, to the point that the game's director, Masahiro Sakurai, began a video series presenting each new fighter. But judging from the tone Sakurai used to tie up the presentation of the latest Smash Bros. DLC fighter, Tekken's Kazuya, it's clear that the next DLC fighter will be the game's last.
There have been two Fighters Passes so far for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Now that Kazuya has been released, only one more slot remains to be announced. Sakurai said in the Kazuya presentation that this final fighter will come to Ultimate by the end of the year, capping the number of DLC characters at 12. Still, fan speculation about a third Fighters Pass has been spreading around the Smash community for months. One widely circulated fan theory cited empty fighter slots found in an Ultimate data mine and postulated this was proof of an eventual third Ultimate Fighters Pass DLC.
Sakurai has intimated before that the DLC would stop with the second Fighters Pass, but speculation still spread. So his parting words in "Mr. Sakurai Presents: Kazuya" were reflective and unmistakably firm: "Up until now, we've created all sorts of fighters and stages. Gathering all these games, new and old, and compiling them into a single product is a task that has meant a lot to me. Now that I think about it, it's been close to 10 years since Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS systems was in development. I've been working on this for a long time. You could call it my life's work. But finally, the next DLC fighter will be the last one. There won't be any more after that."
The phrase "life's work" is rarely employed except in major resolutions, and the statement backs up speculation that Smash Bros. Ultimate will be Sakurai's final game. Sakurai is an industry legend who not only created Super Smash Bros., but also the Kirby series - which certainly explains the love and attention Kirby receives in Smash. Sakurai has a weekly column in the Japanese video game magazine Famitsu, and he recently said he has no plans after the final Smash DLC. Even before his statement in the Kazuya presentation, Sakurai has used the same column to float the possibility that the second Fighters Pass DLC will be the last.
Sakurai, who is 50 years old, said in May that though he's expressed interest in early retirement and he's ending his Famitsu column after 18 years, he's not leaving the gaming industry entirely, and he appears instead to be gearing up for a new phase of his career. Sakurai has been known to work on games to the point of exhaustion, and fans were concerned after he collapsed in a gym in March 2020. The man clearly deserves a break.
Outside of potentially finding a new director for the series, there could be other reasons Ultimate is ceasing its DLC releases. Ultimate will be three years old in December 2021, and the release gap between the Wii U / 3DS version and Ultimate was four years. Granted, waits for a new Smash game have been as long as seven years, but one wonders if Nintendo might be shifting their attention towards developing new games for a new system, especially since Switch Pro release rumors are still running wild.
The end of DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a sad occasion, and the potential semi-retirement of Masahiro Sakurai is even sadder, but there is also a lot to be excited about concerning future Nintendo releases, including Breath of the Wild 2, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Metroid Prime 4, and even the Switch Pro. The best Smash fans can do is give Sakurai a proper send-off.
Source: Nintendo/Sakurai
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