Masahiro Sakurai Forced to Abandon Game Designers Award After 16 Years as He Can’t Find a Successor

Masahiro Sakurai revealed that the Game Designers Award won’t return to the Japan Game Awards, as he has failed to find an adequate replacement to take up his mantle.

The Game of the Year Division of the Japan Game Awards took place yesterday, September 14, recognizing the best and brightest in Japanese game development. While numerous titles and creative minds were celebrated, one accolade is standing out from the rest — and that’s because it’s not coming back for future JGA shows.

Masahiro Sakurai, creator of Kirby and Super Smash Bros., founded the Game Designers Award in 2010. As told by the CESA’s official website, this award recognizes games based on their creativity and originality. Games that are considered for the award must incorporate “new ideas that are a clear departure from existing works” and “expand the form of game software by presenting new ways for the user to enjoy and play with the game.”

The Game Designers Award is ultimately granted to “the title that reached out to a wide range of people, including those who don’t usually play games actively, and that made the memorable achievement of the year, will be selected as the award-winning title.”

This year, that title was Word Game, a project from independent studio Team9. Word Game is a text-based puzzle game originally made with Traditional Chinese characters, but was localized for Japanese players — something that impressed the judging committee (made up of eleven members of industry veterans like Hideki Kamiya, Yoko Taro, Toby Fox, and more) so much that it won the Game Designers Award.

“This work won by an overwhelming majority of votes even in the second round of judging, where the selection was narrowed down to specific titles,” the CESA’s website says. “Even more astonishingly, while the game seems like it could only work in Japanese, it is actually a localized version of a Traditional Chinese title. I am sure it took advanced skills and clever solutions to complete the transmission. I believe this unique and inimitable game is a fitting choice for the final Game Designers Award.”

Sadly, Word Game will be the last title to receive this accolade at the Japan Game Awards, as Sakurai has not yet found a suitable replacement to help him sift through future contenders. He explained the situation during a presentation at this year’s awards ceremony, where he gave some insightful perspective on the industry.

“It’s been 16 years since we started [this award],” he said, as per a live translator. “This is the last year that we’re doing it, and the reason is because there’s nobody who’s going to replace me. That is the only reason. In order to keep this award something that is really convincing and fulfills the role, it needs to be given by somebody who’s a director, who’s come up with innovative games that have changed gameplay a lot. I scouted and tried to find someone to replace me. I did some presentations to try to find somebody, too. I searched for a couple years, but nobody stepped up to replace me. There’s a lot of other judges, but none of them were able to pick up the mantle.

“Game development is always an experiment, but you keep going at it. It’s always a very difficult process. …Although the Grand Award is always so popular, I think this shows a different side of games. Unfortunately, innovativeness doesn’t always link to profitability. There’s not many people who will always drink the newest version of an interesting drink. You usually go with things you’re used to. It’s always hard for this kind of innovativeness and creativity to be recognized, but if the industry loses creativity and innovation, I think the industry as a whole will slowly die. We always need new discoveries and innovations to keep the industry fresh and alive.”

A second translator noted that Sakurai said he hopes players will “keep being interested in creative games even after the award is gone.”

Winners of the Game Designer Award over the last three years were Sad Owl Studios’ Viewfinder, Odd Meter’s Indika, and RPG Time: The Legend of Wright. Fans have been left saddened by this turn of events, but are hopeful that this means Sakurai will be taking time to focus on new projects — especially with all the rumors of a new Smash Bros. game that have been flying around lately.