yup there's always SPD/EPD people. Smash was under EPD2.
The only difference is that Sakurai is the face and so crucial to the core design, that he gets all the airtime.
Masahiro Sakurai isn't a permanent Nintendo employee, but he is a contractor (assuming he still has something in place for the next Nintendo project). So he does work for Nintendo.
- Sakurai may be the face of Smash, but it is an EPD Production Group No.02 game under Nintendo producer Shinya Saito and team. EPD isn't an entity you see on twitter or Youtube - just game credits and a few official Nintendo interviews or short PR interviews with heavy guidelines. But if Sakurai did not come to terms with the next game, Nintendo would move on and make something happen.
Sakurai, who has been the director of all Smash games since they existed, has stated repeatedly and again recently that he felt it impossible for the series to continue without him. He even indicated that in the past he had already tried with Nintendo to find a replacement and, I quote him "it did not work". And besides, when Iwata was not sure about his presence for the Wii episode, there was talk of a port of Melee, as if the very hypothesis of a new entry of Smash was totally impossible to imagine without Sakurai.
We all know that Nintendo producers and coordinators are working on Smash, it’s obvious to everyone I think. But can you give me any other EPD licence that’s so dependent on one person? I don’t know any. It doesn’t matter how much they internalize or outsource.
Since we are talking about EPD 2, let’s take some examples. Of course, Kirby is inseparable from HAL, Fire Emblem is inseparable from IS, Xenoblade is inseparable from Monolith, but they are companies, not one and only person whose survival of these licenses would depend.
We just need to check out the recent Ask The Developper on the latest games from these different series to get a good overview of how EPD2 collaborates with them.
Smash’s situation is different. It has nothing to do with the popularity of Sakurai, with Twitter, Youtube or whatever else is irrelevant. No one doubts for a second that Zelda and Mario will continue to be perfectly viable without Aonuma, Koizumi, Tetzuka or Miyamoto. Because continuity is already assured, succession is constantly being prepared. This is true for every Nintendo franchise. Except for Smash.
If in a few years Studio 2 is no longer available to help with Mario Kart development, this will certainly pose a big problem for Nintendo, but EPD9 will find a solution, through external contracting and/or internal recruitment, and the series will continue. On the other hand, contrary to what I'm reading, I very much doubt that the same reasoning can be applied to Smash without Sakurai if no measures are taken to prepare for the future.
It's clear to absolutely everyone that Sakurai works for Nintendo when he develops Smash. It's clear to absolutely everyone that game development is not about popularity or media coverage. That's not the point.
