{"id":49329,"date":"2025-06-24T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=49329"},"modified":"2025-06-23T16:43:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T07:43:40","slug":"masahiro-sakurai-says-there-is-a-shortage-of-all-rounder-game-directors-in-the-industry-with-devs-becoming-increasingly-specialized-in-narrow-fields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/masahiro-sakurai-says-there-is-a-shortage-of-all-rounder-game-directors-in-the-industry-with-devs-becoming-increasingly-specialized-in-narrow-fields\/","title":{"rendered":"Masahiro Sakurai says there is a shortage of “all-rounder” game directors in the industry, with devs becoming increasingly specialized in narrow fields"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The video game industry has evolved significantly in the past 30 years; however, many leading Japanese creators seem to be worried about the direction<\/a> the industry has taken recently. In a special interview with ITmedia Business Online<\/a> (which will only be available until June 29), Smash and Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai voiced his concern about there being a shortage of game directors in recent days \u2013 especially the kind that\u2019s versatile and possesses comprehensive knowledge about multiple aspects game development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe that the occupation of a \u2018game director\u2019 is very rare nowadays. And even rarer are the directors who are able to work in an environment where they have to oversee hundreds of staff members. While there are plenty of people who make games or who want to make games, there is a shortage of game directors would be able to consolidate them as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kirby<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He explains that behind the lack of directors in the industry lie several factors, but the most difficult one to tackle may be the growing specialization and subdivision of various tasks in game development. While Sakurai himself handles many different aspects of development, from graphics to sound effects, he notes that, \u201cNow, there is no fertile ground for these types of all-rounder game directors to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sakurai explains how he kicked off his career working in the graphics department, then became a game designer, and finally a director. However, he says that in recent years, even the graphics-related work is divided into modeling, effects, textures \u2013 and in that kind of environment, it\u2019s very difficult for someone to acquire a wider knowledge of how a game is made. \u201cIt is because of this continuing specialization and subdivision that there are not enough game directors who would be able to oversee a game\u2019s development in a wider sense,\u201d Sakurai remarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Super<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When asked about the prospects of having such a successor in this day and age of game development \u2013 Sakurai replied that even thinking about that is pointless, because each person has different characteristics unique to them, and the key to success is in how you utilize them. \u201cMaybe there is someone who won\u2019t follow the same road as me, but will be able to break through by going in a completely different direction [\u2026] I believe every game creator should pave their own unique way (instead of being a successor to somebody else).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Masahiro Sakurai talks about the shortage of “versatile directors” – noting specialization and subdivision of game development as the cause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":45740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-49329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nMasahiro Sakurai says there is a shortage of "all-rounder" game directors in the industry, with devs becoming increasingly specialized in narrow fields - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Masahiro Sakurai talks about the shortage of "versatile directors" - noting specialization and subdivision of game development as the cause.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/masahiro-sakurai-says-there-is-a-shortage-of-all-rounder-game-directors-in-the-industry-with-devs-becoming-increasingly-specialized-in-narrow-fields\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Masahiro Sakurai says there is a shortage of "all-rounder" game directors in the industry, with devs becoming increasingly specialized in narrow fields - 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