“Work Is Still Coming In”: At 56, Masahiro Sakurai Opens Up About Eye Strain and His Two Conditions for Retirement
Speaking on stage this Saturday, November 7, 2026, during the Famitsu 40th Anniversary Fes in Japan, Masahiro Sakurai shared a candid update on his current workload and how he views retirement.
At 56 years old, the creator of Kirby and Super Smash Bros. confirmed that new project offers are still actively coming in at his independent company Sora Ltd., even as his body increasingly reminds him of the physical toll of decades in game production.
“Very Unfortunately, I Am Still Able to Work Extremely Hard”
Sakurai's appearance celebrated the November 6 release of Masahiro Sakurai's Thoughts on Games: Final, the tenth and concluding volume of his long-running magazine column compilation. The 216-page book gathers 69 columns originally published between March 2019 and November 2021, alongside four brand-new essays written in 2026.
Asked how his perspective has evolved five years after writing his original column on retirement, the veteran director explained that his core rule remains unchanged. He measures his active career against two strict questions: is there still demand for his work, and can he still deliver on that demand?
“When either ‘Is there a demand?’ or ‘Can I meet that demand?’ falls apart, I will consider it time to retire. However, in my current situation, very unfortunately, I am still able to work extremely hard.”
Sakurai also noted that he makes a conscious effort to listen to the people around him and adapt his thinking flexibly, joking that he has hopefully avoided turning into a stubborn industry veteran stuck in his own ways.
Noticeable Eye Strain and Knowing When to Change Stages
Behind the dry humor, Sakurai was honest about the physical decline he feels after more than three decades of frame-by-frame game direction. In particular, he pointed out that his eyes now get tired much more easily than they used to.
Because project requests continue to arrive steadily, he summed up his current pace with striking bluntness: with demand still strong, the remaining question is simply when his spirit might finally break. Even so, he firmly rejected the idea of blindly repeating the same grueling development loop forever.
- The two retirement triggers: a drop in industry demand for his direction, or an inability to physically and creatively meet expectations.
- The physical reality at 56: noticeable eye fatigue and bodily wear after 35 years of hands-on development.
- Moving to a new stage: refusing to repeat the exact same production grind indefinitely, while constantly asking how he can best serve the game industry.
Sakurai emphasized that people eventually have to change stages in life. That mindset previously led him to spend 90 million yen of his own money producing his educational YouTube channel, Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games, which wrapped up in October 2024 with zero monetization solely to pass practical knowledge on to future developers.
Inside the 200-Page Kirby Air Riders Pitch and Modern Development Pressures
The final book volume also pulls back the curtain on his recent directorial work, publishing excerpts from his original 200-page pitch document for Kirby Air Riders drafted in July 2021 ahead of the game's November 2025 launch on Nintendo Switch 2, along with internal design notes for its Road Trip story mode. Nintendo has continued supporting the Switch 2 racer post-launch, despite recently having to cancel the Kirby Air Riders Halloween event due to a mid-match screen freeze bug.
During the same stage panel, Sakurai confirmed that he did not use generative AI at all on Kirby Air Riders, not even for early brainstorming. Having recently warned that heavy reliance on generative AI risks flooding the market with unoriginal games, he reiterated that new tools must never exploit creators, while acknowledging that modern triple-A game development has become so grueling that studios cannot afford to ignore workflow evolution entirely.
My Perspective
Anyone who has followed Masahiro Sakurai's career knows this is a man who once worked through stomach illnesses and IV drips just to make sure Super Smash Bros. hit its balance targets on time. Hearing him joke on stage that he is “very unfortunately” still capable of working flat out makes me smile, right until he follows it up by admitting his eyes are wearing out and wondering when his spirit will finally give in.
What reassures me most here is his self-awareness that nobody can keep repeating that punishing directorial sprint forever. Whether his next stage means smaller experimental projects at Sora Ltd. or mentoring younger teams without staring at debug monitors fourteen hours a day, he has more than earned the right to give his eyes a break.
For now, project requests are still stacking up at Sora Ltd., and one of Nintendo's most iconic collaborators clearly is not ready to put the controller down just yet.
Based on the outskirts of New York City, Chaya 'Chayane' spent five years studying software engineering in Montreal before returning to her home state. A Full-Stack developer and Deep Learning AI architecture researcher, she explores neural networks and algorithmic optimization while engineering data pipelines for Retrocharting and Gamescharting alongside Grimtag. A gamer for over 20 years and an avid collector of Nintendo history and The Legend of Zelda, she explored World of Warcraft's Azeroth before bringing her deep technical background to video game analysis.
