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The story
Masahiro Sakurai posted a photo on X of a dinner with ten renowned game developers — Kazutaka Kodaka, Yoko Taro, Toby Fox, Shinji Mikami, Hideki Kamiya, Goichi Suda, Keiichiro Toyama, Jiro Ishii, and Fumito Ueda — describing it as “an Avengers-style gathering of game directors.” On 5ch’s hardware/industry (Geha) board, users pointed out that the lineup closely matches the judging panel for the “Japan Game Awards 2026 Game Designers Award,” fueling speculation that this wasn’t just a casual dinner but an awards-related meeting. The discussion soon spread beyond the dinner itself, touching on each person’s recent track record, the notable absence of anyone from Nintendo, and frustration with an industry recognition structure that seems to spotlight directors above all else.
Hello.
This is an Avengers-style gathering of game directors
Source: x.com / Original post here
What people said
· Kazutaka Kodaka
· Yoko Taro
· Toby Fox
· Shinji Mikami
· Hideki Kamiya
· Goichi Suda
· Keiichiro Toyama
· Masahiro Sakurai
· Jiro Ishii
· Fumito Ueda
Huh? Can YOU make a god-tier game that beats Smash Bros?
Only a god could make something like Smash. Huh?
Classic 5ch lol — in all the quote-retweets, not a single person was actually trashing him.
So it's a gathering of the judges for the "Japan Game Awards 2026 – Game Designers Award," huh.
Right?
The thread title is such good bait, everyone's falling for it lol.
Shame this is the award's last year though.
Mikami: Resident Evil 1, Resident Evil 4
Kamiya: Devil May Cry, Okami
These are probably the real deals, not one-hit wonders.
Out of everyone in this photo, besides Shinji Mikami, those are probably the only other two with a track record good enough for a D.I.C.E. Awards Hall of Fame Award.
Sakurai: Kid Icarus: Uprising bombed
Mikami: hasn't released a game in years
Kamiya: just keeps milking Okami
Nothing but has-beens here.
Good to see the drinking buddy crew steadily growing.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G29uBHQacAAtVK6.jpg
Programmers and designers go through the same grind too.
Anyone who isn't just bottom-rung staff following orders normally gets promoted into a lead or director role anyway.
Directors get that, which is why you often hear them bring up other staff in interviews too.
Producers, though, genuinely do skim credit off the dev team's work.
Producers should just take pride in the sales numbers instead.
Toby Fox is still only 34.
Also, I didn't realize his face is just casually on Wikipedia.
Creators visiting each other's studios to swap opinions and inspire one another by seeing how the other works — that happens often enough.
But I can't imagine a dinner out being productive for that. Genuinely baffling.
That's because if you're not a director — if you're "just" a producer — you can't serve as a judge for the "Japan Game Awards – Annual Grand Award / Game Designers Award."
*Just to be clear, they're judges for the "Game Designers Award" specifically.
https://awards.cesa.or.jp/year/prize/02.html
The judges in the photo are the ones who picked this year's title for the "Annual Grand Award / Game Designers Award."
That said, in terms of prestige, the "Annual Grand Award / Game Designers Award" is considered on par with the "Annual Grand Award" itself.
Well, game folks are busy making games.
Miyamoto especially wouldn't have time for stuff like this.
Re: #69
Nintendo employees really don't show up at things like this.
Is there some kind of company rule about it?
Wait, isn't Sakurai a "Nintendo employee"??
There was a Nintendo logo in the background at the TGS Game Awards.
Sakurai runs his own company, so he's not actually a Nintendo employee.
Well, there are also awards that are specifically given to people who actually make games, you know.
This one?
Guess talent can only emerge on its own in the end.
The guy known as "Kemuri" is probably the closest thing to a top disciple these days, huh.
In most cases, a talented person can only actually make use of that talent if they're lucky enough to have a good mentor and environment, and if they put in the effort too.
So if a mentor doesn't have a good eye for talent, all they end up doing is stuffing knowledge and know-how into someone mediocre.
And when that mediocre person then tries to add their own originality, they just end up ruining everything the mentor taught them — and their mediocrity shows right through.
Realistically, there doesn't seem to be much upside to adding characters from these franchises into a new Smash game anyway.
Then maybe he should just quietly get on with it?
And what kind of request is he even going to make by hanging out with these guys?
How does flaunting it on X as "the Avengers (lol)" make the games any more fun?
This is exactly the kind of pointless, customer-irrelevant talk he himself always complains about.
I'll grant that Miyamoto and Suzuki are SSS-rank legends,
but Kojima and Sakaguchi are a rank below that.
Kojima's really only got Policenauts and Metal Gear Solid as signature works.
Being called a retro-game legend doesn't mean all that much though — in that sense, Sakaguchi belongs to the same "legacy" club.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
The thread largely split into two points of contention. The first was speculation that this gathering wasn’t just a casual dinner but a face-to-face meeting of the judges for the “Japan Game Awards 2026 Game Designers Award,” with CESA’s official awards page cited as supporting evidence (it was also noted that this would be the award’s final year). The second was frustration with the game industry’s recognition structure itself — why it’s always the people labeled “directors” or “creators” who get the spotlight, while the programmers and designers working on the same projects rarely get their achievements acknowledged. The fact that Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto and others never appear in this kind of gathering also became a talking point, though it’s worth noting the thread never got past speculation as to why.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread “Masahiro Sakurai Ends Up Having Dinner With an Absurd Lineup of People.”
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