Recently, Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of Kirby and Super Smash Bros., announced that the "Game Designer Awards," which he has hosted for 16 years, will be discontinued. The main reason is the inability to find a suitable successor to take over the award's operations. In his acceptance speech, he discussed the very real industry contradictions between originality, market sales, and consumer psychology.
Masahiro Sakurai bluntly stated, "To put it harshly, originality doesn't significantly impact game sales; its priority is not high from a commercial perspective." He used convenience store beverages as an analogy: consumers tend to choose familiar products with proven flavors and rarely actively try completely new, unfamiliar tastes. The same logic applies to the game market. Players are more willing to spend money on familiar IPs and gameplay mechanics to avoid the risk of disappointment, seeking experiences that meet their expectations.
However, even though originality is difficult to translate into commercial sales, Masahiro Sakurai emphasized its irreplaceable value to the industry. A gaming industry that completely loses its capacity for originality will only inch toward a slow death. All the mature gameplay mechanics and popular genres we enjoy today stem from creators who dared to take risks and try new things in the past. If no one continues to pioneer new forms of entertainment, the industry will lose the foundation for its forward development.
Although the Game Designer Awards are coming to an end, Masahiro Sakurai still calls on the entire industry and players to continue paying attention to works with novel creativity and unique characteristics, rather than focusing solely on commercial performance. His remarks have sparked discussion in the gaming community. Many players agree that AAA titles are becoming increasingly conservative, with sequels and reboots dominating the mainstream. However, some players argue that commercial survival is a prerequisite for studios to stay afloat, and balancing original innovation with market revenue has always been a challenge for developers.