With how ubiquitous designer Masahiro Sakurai has become at Nintendo thanks to Kirby and Super Smash Bros., it’s hard to believe that his formal company is only turning 20 years old this year. Created way back in 2005, Sakurai posted on Twitter that today marks the official 20th anniversary of Sora Co. Ltd (despite most sources saying September 30th, 2005, was the founding date). Created as a way for Sakurai to work independently from big publishers and because of his lack of interest in constantly working on sequels at Hal Laboratory, Sora’s only official projects have been Super Smash Bros. related games. Sora spun-off into an official Nintendo company called “Project Sora” in 2009 to develop Kid Icarus: Uprising, and the company closed after completing the game.
Thanking fans for their patronage, the tweet doesn’t really state much else about the future plans for the company. Sakurai does bring up Kirby Air Riders, the upcoming Switch 2 exclusive racing game, but merely writes, “We expect to be able to release more information on it soon.” Considering how much of a perfectionist Sakurai is, I’m not convinced Air Riders will even be a 2026 release. It could still be a couple of years before we’re able to play it.
At any rate, Sakurai’s dedication to his craft and the ludicrously high quality he brings with each game has made Sora Co. Ltd one of the most consistently amazing studios in the industry. Hopefully going forward, Sakurai is able to take more breaks instead of working himself to exhaustion. He’s definitely earned it.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
