For his YouTube video tutorials
Masahiro Sakurai, the legendary creator of Kirby and Super Smash Bros., has been recognised by the Japanese Government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs.
Sakurai revealed on social media platform X (spotted via VGC) has been listed as a recipient of the Cultural Affairs’ annual Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists. But it’s not for his video game development career; it’s actually for his YouTube channel, Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games.
Responding to the award, Sakurai responded by thanking the Agency and, jokingly saying (translated by Google) “Does this mean that I can call myself a cultural person?” Sakurai was also awarded the AMD Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Sakurai started his YouTube channel back in 2022 and published his final “regular” video in late 2024, with his videos covering a range of topics from game development, UI, animation, market, and his own career. The channel was last active two weeks ago, publishing compilations of some of his shorter videos.
At the end of his final video for the channel, Sakurai teased that he was working on a brand new video game. We don’t know what that i