Masahiro Sakurai receives Japanese government award for his contribution to education

The Cultural Affairs Agency of the Government of Japan has decided to officially recognise Masahiro Sakurai with the Art Encouragement Award for New Artists. Interestingly, this award was not given for his contribution as the creator of the Kirby or Super Smash Bros. series, but for his educational work at the head of his YouTube channel, 'Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games'.

Sakurai himself revealed the award while acknowledging another award: the AMD Lifetime Achievement Award. He also joked about whether or not this made him a cultural icon.

Although it has been closed for some time now, Masahiro Sakurai's YouTube channel contains countless hours of video game development lessons and working methods from the master himself. A channel that, if you are interested in how games are made, whether you are an amateur or want to dedicate yourself professionally to it, you should take a look here.

Although he has recognised these awards, we know that this is not the end of Sakurai's career. His company Sora, which he runs with his wife, has been working on a new unannounced title for over two years, which we could presumably see for the first time at the Nintendo Switch 2 Nintendo Direct in April.

What do you think of Masahiro Sakurai's contribution to the next generation of game developers?