Kirby's father leaving Hal Laboratories

Hal Laboratories' Masahiro Sakurai--known as the man who created Kirby and directed the Smash Bros. Series--will be leaving the company. In the latest issue of Famitsu magazine, Sakurai revealed in his column that he has resigned after determining that it was not possible for him to continue developing games under Hal's current structure. Sakurai was frustrated with having to work to continually achieve higher performance while receiving a fixed salary. At the present time, he has no intentions of becoming an employee or developer under a company or organization for the time being, and he plans to work on a freelance basis.

The Kirby series will continue to be developed by Hal Laboratories, but whether or not Hal will continue to develop Smash Bros. games is not known at this time.