Super Smash Bros' Masahiro Sakurai says "I'm so sorry" to players who spent "hundreds or even thousands of hours" in his fighting game

Super Smash Bros Ultimate and Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai says sorry to the players who have spent thousands of hours in his games.

The apology comes courtesy of the famed director's most recent Creating Games episode, in which he reconciles with the idea that a game's playtime is basically a cost that players need to weigh. "Play time - especially how it's conceived before starting a game - is better thought of as a cost of sorts," he explains. 

"In the modern world, you're constantly competing with everything else," Sakurai continues. "It's a battle for people's time. Even if someone has lots of free time on their hands, that means something different now than it did in the past. There are always things to do. The question is: how do people choose to spend the time?"

Be Mindful of the Time Players are Giving You [Planning & Game Design] - YouTube

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I find it funny that footage from infamous timesinks Vampire Survivors and Powerwash Simulator play in the background while Sakurai says all this, but the director reckons that phone screens are probably the biggest threat to people's free time because there are virtually no barriers to entry. You can't just whip out your console in a supermarket queue, you need to be able to focus while playing, and games can take up significantly more time - so Sakurai says a game's appeal needs to be able to overcome those barriers.

Regardless, after recognizing the war for people's attention, Sakurai says a massive "I'm so sorry!" to the players who have spent thousands of hours fighting in Super Smash Bros because, as he explained, they could've spent their precious time doing literally anything else.

Astro Bot director Nicolas Doucet also chimed in on the question of playtime recently, arguing that “12 to 15 hours of condensed fun” beats 40 hours with parts “you feel like skipping.”