Smash Bros creator Masahiro Sakurai honored by Japanese government for pioneering game design tutorials
The Agency for Cultural Affairs has given Sakurai an Art Encouragement Prize for his YouTube series
Super Smash Bros and Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai has been given an award by the Japanese government.
The government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs has listed Sakurai as one of the recipients of its annual Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists.
According to the Agency, the award is “presented to persons whose outstanding achievements have opened up new vistas in a given year”.
While the fact that Sakurai has been working in game development for more than 35 years would suggest that he’s not a ‘new’ artist, his award isn’t for his work as a developer, but instead for his YouTube series, Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games.
In a statement explaining why Sakurai was given the award, the Agency said: ” Masahiro Sakurai has made a significant contribution to the development of the game industry by sharing his knowledge of game production widely through YouTube in an easy-to understand, accessible format with a coherent storyline.
“An English version has also been released, and its influence has spread not only domestically but also internationally, and we believe that this is enough to earn him the Art Encouragement Prize.”
Sakurai responded to the award on X, noting that last week he was also awarded a lifetime achievement award at the Association of Media in Digital awards in Japan.
“I was recently selected as the recipient of the AMD Award for Lifetime Achievement, and now I’ve been awarded the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Art Encouragement Prize,” Sakurai wrote. “Does this mean that I can call myself a cultural person? Thank you!”
Sakurai started his YouTube series in 2022, and posted the final episode in October 2024 with a tribute to Satoru Iwata.
Last year, Sakurai said he was “still creating games for the time being”, despite previously claiming in 2022 that he was “semi-retired” following the release of Super Smash Bros Ultimate’s final DLC character.
“As for me, I’m still creating games for the time being, but I’m also making this YouTube channel,” Sakurai said at the time. “I’d never done anything like this before starting, so in a way, you could say I haven’t exactly stayed put either.”
He then revealed in the penultimate episode of his YouTube series that he had started production on his next game project back in 2022, saying: “I’m sorry I can’t share more about this project, but assuming we’re able to get it made, it should be announced sooner or later.”
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was released in December 2018 and was supported with a robust DLC offering that included the release of 13 new characters over a three-year period, bringing the final roster to 89 fighters.
