No more DLC characters for Smash Bros Ultimate after second season pass ends. Sakurai's last Smash Bros?

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-06-28-no-more-dlc-characters-for-super-smash-bros-ultimate-after-second-fighters-pass-sakurai-confirms

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will see its final DLC character released later this year, series director Masahiro Sakurai has confirmed.

In a video showing off DLC character Kazuya Mishima, out tomorrow, 29th June, Sakurai said the final character to be released as part of Fighters Pass Vol. 2 will be Ultimate's last.

"Up until now, we've created all sorts of fighters and stages," Sakurai said.

"Gathering all of these games, new and old, and compiling them into a single product is a task that has meant a lot to me.

"Now that I think about it, it's been close to 10 years since Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS was in development. I've been working on this for a long time. You could call it my life's work.

"But finally, the next DLC fighter will be the last one. There won't be any more after that.

"It'll be a while before that announcement, but it'll be available this year as planned, so please be patient.

"It seems like the team will have to complete this project at home, right up until the end."

Sakurai's comments clearly signal the end of Ultimate character DLC, but do they also signal the end of Sakurai's involvement with Smash Bros.?

In a May column for Japanese magazine Famitsu, Sakurai said he recently thought about what he'd do after he quits making video games.

"Everybody grows old eventually, and it's not like I'll be able to keep on working forever," he said, as translated by IGN. "Speaking honestly, it would be nice to have a bit more free time. There's something pretty attractive about the idea of early retirement, right?!

The question of 'How much longer can I keep working at this job?' does cross my mind pretty often. 'How long should I keep going for? What should I do afterwards?' I believe these sorts of questions are particularly unavoidable for people my age or older."

All challenger packs from Fighters Pass Vol. 2 will be released by 21st December 2021, so we know Ultimate's mystery final character will be out this year.

Meanwhile, Nintendo announced the next set of Mii Fighter costumes that launch alongside Kazuya this week. They are Lloyd from Tales of Symphonia, Dragonborn from Skyrim, Shantae, and Dante from Devil May Cry. You can see them all in the video below:

What do you think, SW? Is this Sakurai's last Smash Bros? Who will be the final DLC character? Maybe it will be Sakurai himself lol. If not, I would like to see Kiryu Kazama (Yakuza) as the last!

Kiryu would be badass, but I'm not sure sheep would appreciate that. They didn't support Yakuza 1 & 2 on the WiiU which led to Sega no longer porting the franchise to Nintendo consoles. He'd probably need to be wearing Cappy for sheep to care.

From the "Everyone is Here!" premise and the way he's been talking about all of this, it certainly does feel like it's going to be his last Smash, maybe even his last game.

But that's ultimately for him to decide and announce on his own terms. I don't find speculating on the end of someone's career helpful.

Not surprising, the roster for the game is absolutely bonkers. I don’t know how they’re ever going to follow it up. Still a good number of characters that I’d love to see make it in. Top of my list is probably Master Chief and Ryu Hyabusa.

I think it was a well known fact that season 2 was going to be the last one, there was also especulation that this was going to be Sakurai's last Smash, so nothing new here as well.

Personally, i think Sakurai will go on to develop a much more smaller title within Nintendo and of course Nintendo will re-release Smash Ultimate for their next Hardware. After that, who knows if we will ever see another one.

I wonder if Nintendo will take the series in a new direction altogether? The amount of content in SSBU is so overwhelming and they’ll never be able to top it especially considering all the rights they needed to get to use characters and music. But whatever they call it, expect a massively trimmed down roster. Sakurai's been pushing that expectation for a good while, this is the "blowout" game for playable fighters. I'd vote a reboot of this series or a fully remake of SSB N64.

Nintendo fans don't care about B tier third party franchises like Yakuza.

They want good third party efforts like MH Rise, which broke Capcom records and sold millions.

@NathanDrakeSwag: No, it's because everyone who bought a Wii U already had a PS3, 360, or PC lol

More like most of their fans are too young to play Yakuza lol.

90+ rated M rated exclusives such as Conker, Perfect Dark and Eternal Darkness sold poorly on Nintendo consoles. Not even a top 10 GOAT like Resident Evil 4 managed to sell enough on the GC to stay exclusive. Capcom had to port it to the PS2 to turn a profit.

@casey-wegner: Dude, no one bought Yakuza on WiiU because no one bought any 3rd-party games on WiiU. Sega is just shunning a huge pile of cash for not porting the series onto Switch. Same with Namco and Tekken.

Good. They are never going to top Ultimate, and Sakurai needs to stop working 80-hour weeks before he dies in his 50's like Iwata. They should wait at least 10 years before releasing another Smash, and it should be a new team with new ideas. Maybe even go 3D like Power Stone.

I hope he does indeed retire, because he has more than earned it. Being selfish, I wish he could continue to add to the game forever, as it's an all-time masterpiece that I doubt could ever be topped from a roster and balance perspective. The unfortunate reality is that nothing lasts forever, no matter how great. It'd at least be nice to see him go out on top.

The guy overworks himself just to please "fans". He deserves a break.

Yea, I think at this point the franchise needs a reboot or something lol. How do you top Ultimate?

Good, I don't own it, hopefully they will release an all DLC having edition down the line.

Do you know tht Iwata died from cancer and it has nothing to do with working long hours?

I would actually buy that just to have it all on a cartridge lol

Why can a man like Masahiro Sakurai can devote so many hours into the development of one game while Westerner developers cannot?

I just saw Sakurai's presentation introducing Kazuya, and it was very impressive.

I personally want the last character to be Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden, but that's probably not the case. Many seem to want Sora, but it's totally unpredictable.

I'm optimistic that the Smash Bros. series will keep guest characters in the next game and even add more. At first glance, it may seem difficult for Nintendo to continue to use so many guest characters from other companies, but I think it's the other way around. Many third parties would rather ask Nintendo to use their characters because participating in Smash has a huge promotional effect for their IPs and benefits both.

@onesiphorus: I'm aware, but also suspect he ignored warning signs and wasn't getting annual checkups that may have caught the growth in his gall bladder before it was too late. Just speculation on my part, but I do believe in work-life balance. Especially now that I have kids.

I would like to see the series have a hard reboot for the next game. Maybe even change the name of the title from Smash Brothers to something else but make it subtle to where the fan base would know that this is a spiritual successor of sorts