Masahiro Sakurai (桜井政博 Sakurai Masahiro) (born August 3, 1970) is a game concept designer, the creative force behind both the Kirby and the Super Smash Bros. series on Nintendo platforms, and wrote a weekly column for Famitsu magazine.

Sakurai resigned from his position at HAL Laboratory, Inc. on August 5, 2003. Reasons for his departure are said to be because he was seeking more freedom and was not happy with the structure that was present at HAL Laboratory. Most of all, however, Sakurai grew tired of the sequelization of the industry and at HAL.

"It was tough for me to see that every time I made a new game, people automatically assumed that a sequel was coming," said Masahiro Sakurai on August 26, 2003, in an interview with Nintendo Dream, two weeks after his resignation from HAL Laboratory. "Even if it's a sequel, lots of people have to give their all to make a game, but some people think the sequel process happens naturally."

He has publicly stated that he wishes HAL to continue working on the Kirby series. As to the future of Super Smash Bros., ex-HAL member and current President of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, has promised, during the Nintendo E³ 2005 press conference, an online iteration of the game to come with Nintendo's next videogame console, Wii. His resignation came just days after an interview where he openly criticized Nintendo for circumstances surrounding the development of the GameCube racer Kirby Air Ride.

Recently, Sakurai has been working with Q Entertainment, along with Tetsuya Mizuguchi. This collaboration has resulted in Meteos, a unique puzzle game for the Nintendo DS. Q Entertainment was also the developer behind the PSP puzzle game Lumines, to which Meteos is frequently compared.

In September 2005 Sakurai formed his own company, Sora.GameDailyBiz: Industry Movers 09/30/2005. URL accessed 05/11/2006 Two titles have been announced to be in development but any information on the titles (other than that they are in development) is unknown at this time.

In the issue #885 of Famitsu magazine, Sakurai revealed that he will be serving as a director and game designer on Super Smash Bros. Brawl game for Nintendo's next-gen console Wii. The game will feature new characters, possibly online play and a release sometime in 2007. ^*

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