The release of “Super Smash Bros” changed things up for the franchise a bit, as it was no longer developed by its classic studio, instead Masahiro Sakurai decided to transfer the development to Bandai Namco, who handled the game’s production for the Wii U as well as its portable versions for the Nintendo 3DS and 2DS handhelds. The game turned out okay, and most fans didn’t even question the move in the end – although there was still some confusion in the community over this decision. And now, Sakurai has decided to shed some light onto the situation.
The reason HAL Laboratory wasn’t tasked with the game’s development was obvious – Sakurai’s departure from the company made that impossible. And since he didn’t want to risk such an important production with lesser known studios that he’s not entirely familiar with, he chose to go directly to Bandai Namco.
According to him, he’s learned a lot from developing Kid Icarus 3DS, which was a somewhat disastrous process due to the difficulty in finding the right people. The game was developed by a team pulled together from various companies and other teams, and in the end, there was reportedly a lot of trouble with the overall communication, productivity and team morale. Sakurai himself wasn’t able to oversee the game’s production as much as he wished to, on the other hand, as he was constantly tasked with HR problems like conducting interviews.
So in the end, he decided to just focus on one studio, and one that he already knows well, going to Bandai Namco who have already proven their experience with their work on the “Tekken” franchise. Bandai Namco are one of the few Japanese companies that already know the development process for a large-scale fighting game inside and out, so they were an obvious choice, at least more so than other companies in the area.
Meanwhile, the game’s popularity continues to shine, as it was recently named one of Joystiq’s top 10 games of 2014. That should come as no surprise, as the game saw fantastic reception from its very first launch day, when it managed to sell half a million copies in just 48 hours. This made it the fastest selling title for the Wii U in the entire US, which not only proved that the game had a lot of merit, but it also answered a question that Nintendo seem to have been asking themselves lately, namely if there’s a point in seriously considering the US market as lucrative. For all intents and purposes, it seems it’s one of their best markets.