Meteos creator founds new dev

By Games Industry.biz Published 29 September, 2005

He of Kirby fame too, of course.

Former HAL Labs star designer Masahiro Sakurai, whose credits include the creation of the Kirby and Smash Brothers series as well as, more recently, directing Nintendo DS title Meteos for Q Entertainment, has announced the formation of his own studio.

The independent venture, called Sora (which translates as "sky"), is already hard at work on two projects - although at present it hasn't been revealed what type of games the firm is developing, or even which platforms they're for.

Sakurai has traditionally worked with Nintendo hardware, though, with HAL Labs being closely tied to the Kyoto-based platform holder - to the extent that one of Sakurai's contemporaries there, Satoru Iwata, is now president of Nintendo. Iwata also worked on the Kirby and Smash Brothers titles.

The designer's decision to strike out with a new studio of his own is representative of a rapid move away from in-house publishing studios in the Japanese market, with many of the region's most successful creators leaving the publishers they've worked for for many years to create their own independent studios.

Sakurai joins an exodus which already includes the likes of Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, Street Fighter and Resident Evil producer Yoshiki Okamoto and Sega Rally and Rez director Tetsuya Mizuguchi - all of whom were promptly snapped up to work on Xbox 360 projects by Microsoft.

Most of them cite a stifling environment and the difficulty of innovating within a publisher studio as their key reason for leaving - with Okamoto-san explaining to GamesIndustry.biz in Tokyo last week that at Capcom, because of the success of his previous projects, he was no longer allowed to work on new IP or innovative new titles and instead was assigned to continue working on successful franchises.

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Comments (10) Latest comment 6 years ago

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  • Carrybagma #1 6 years ago

    Maybe this is an example of why Nintendo claims to be independent-dev-friendly for Revolution.

  • Stoatboy #2 6 years ago

    How exactly, when:

    a) "it hasn't been revealed what type of games the firm is developing, or even which platforms they're for"?

    and

    b) the article states that "Sakurai joins an exodus which already includes the likes of Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, Street Fighter and Resident Evil producer Yoshiki Okamoto and Sega Rally and Rez director Tetsuya Mizuguchi - all of whom were promptly snapped up to work on Xbox 360 projects by Microsoft."

    Still Nintendo was at least suggested as a possibility, so I'd guess that's enough to proclaim Nintendo the saviour of gaming yet again...

  • smelly #3 6 years ago

    As long as they make games of the quality of kirby's paintbrush on the ds (best game i've played in ages), i'll be happy camper.

    If they start making boring rpgs.. i'll be crying into my chips.

  • Teeth #4 6 years ago

    What about exciting RPGs, what if they do that?

  • smelly #5 6 years ago

    sorry.. but exciting and rpg shouldnt be used in the same sentence (lol).. especially not if in final fantasy style (smile).

    Hey.. wow.. a thread with mild nintendo references which hasnt turned into a load of fanboys bashing other peoples machines! Im impressed! lol

  • Carrybagma #6 6 years ago

    I didn't make my point clear - read this bit again:

    The designer's decision to strike out with a new studio of his own is representative of a rapid move away from in-house publishing studios in the Japanese market, with many of the region's most successful creators leaving the publishers they've worked for for many years to create their own independent studios.

    Nintendo has claimed that it wants more more independent/smaller companies to develop for the Rev. If the above quote is true, then Nintendo's claim is hardly surprising.

    Or have I been cast into the fanboy pit for mentioning the 'N' word? (Nods to smelly and says "not too bad in here, is it?";)

  • smelly #7 6 years ago

    Well it doesnt say that he's moving to make games for nintendo does it? Maybe he wants to move away to make cross platform games (for instance?).

    I THINK they're saying that is more about keeping costs down for studios so games dont cost 30 million quid to make and are a huge risk. But to keep it to lower risk smaller projects (with the odd big one).

    Its like hollywood, you dont see them stupid enough to try to release EVERY film as a big budget multi million dollar budgets do you? They release big ones, with small ones filling the gaps.

    Well that's how i read it.. but i wouldnt know.. im obviously a fanboy .. lol

  • Carrybagma #8 6 years ago

    Sorry smelly - didn't mean to imply that you were a long-term resident of the 'N_______' fanboy pit.

  • smelly #9 6 years ago

    didnt say you did.. i was just waiting for the fanboys to jump in and start accusing people of being fanboys because they're discussing something other than their chosen consoles games.

    That said, they're obviously not interested in kirby..

  • technos #10 6 years ago

    Pure worship. You can't not love this guy. KIRBY PEOPLE. and now Meteos.. I'm not going to mention SSBM, because it's not that great.. but this guy. Love him and buy his games, fools. Even you, wasp. Kirby hater bastard.