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Masahiro Sakurai Forced to Abandon Game Designers Award After 16 Years
IGN • • technology
Key Points:
- Masahiro Sakurai announced that the Game Designers Award, which he founded in 2010 to honor creativity and originality in Japanese game development, will be discontinued due to his inability to find a suitable successor.
- The award, given to games that introduce innovative gameplay and appeal to a broad audience, was last presented to Team9's Word Game, a text-based puzzle localized from Traditional Chinese to Japanese.
- Sakurai emphasized the importance of innovation in the gaming industry but noted the difficulty in maintaining such creativity, as it does not always align with commercial success.
- Despite efforts to find a new director with experience in groundbreaking game design to continue the award, no candidate stepped forward, leading to the award's retirement after 16 years.
- Fans expressed disappointment at the award's end but remain hopeful that Sakurai will focus on new projects, amid speculation about a potential new Super Smash Bros. installment.
