2024 had many sad and bad things happen within the gaming industry, but one of the ones that we at the Nintendo Entertainment Podcast felt the most was the ending of the “Creating Games” YouTube channel that Masahiro Sakurai created. He made that channel to create something special that would help out young game developers while also inspiring gamers and highlighting his various thoughts and feelings on the gaming industry as a whole. It was a wonderful thing, but sadly, it’s now done. However, in interviews, like the one he gave recently to Nikkei Cross Trend, he’s still dropping some wisdom.
Specifically, Sakurai was about the manufacturing games as a whole, and he noted:
“The job of making games is to create entertainment. However, if you are going to sell them, you have to think of it as work, not entertainment. That’s what it means to be a professional. Even if it’s the opposite of what I like, I’ll make it if it’s necessary.”
Now, that’s not to say that he doesn’t want to make the best game possible for fans, we all know that he does. What Masahiro Sakurai is saying here is that you need to work hard to get the game right and make it the best it can be, even if you’re not the biggest fan of what the game is.
This is in contrast to certain developers and publishers who don’t mind rushing out titles that aren’t truly finished because they just want to “get the game out and make money.” Sakurai has never done that, and he never will.
