A recruitment listing from Bandai Namco has cropped up, for a “Smash Bros. 6,” scheduled for release in 2015.
There are a few things we know in life to be fact. Grass grows, birds fly, the sun shines, and Nintendo only ever releases one Super Smash Bros. game per console generation. Except that may be about to change, going by a leaked recruitment listing from Bandai Namco, who is developing the new game. The listing, which was quickly pulled on discovery by Japanese outlet Game Jouhou, was for something called “Smash Bros. 6” due for release in 2015.
The recruitment page was specifically looking for programmers, and notes that the project currently has 120 people working on it, and they expect that number to increase to 200. At the moment, they’re in need of people for various roles, who will then be put into different teams to handle characters, stages, 3D programming, motion, game mode, mini-games, menu, UI, and more.
The page was accompanied by the following message:
“Social games are currently a big hit, but the current state of job opportunities for making retail games is critically low. In the midst of this, this will likely be your only chance to be part of a development project for the Smash Bros. [series], which has surpassed a total of 10 million in worldwide sales. And Bandai Namco believes that now is the best time to recruit programmers for retail games.”
So what can we draw from this? First of all, there have only really been three Smash Bros. games: Super Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The currently-in-development titles for the Wii U and 3DS would be number 4. So, there are two conclusions we can draw from the listing.
The first, is that the “6” is simply a typo or miss-communication, and the Smash Bros. game that is currently in development for Wii U and 3DS has been pushed back to 2015.
The second, is that they are considering the Wii U and 3DS versions of the new game as “Smash Bros. 4” and “Smash Bros. 5” respectively, and a sixth title is in development for 2015.
Siliconera notes that “while the original recruitment page has apparently been deleted from e-career FA, it doesn’t appear to be fake. Tatsuya Matsumura, a consultant who uploaded the ad, seems to still have all of his other recruitment ads live on the website, which includes career opportunities for other companies such as Square Enix, Capcom, Tecmo Koei, and various mobile developers.”
Hopefully we’ll learn more about this during tomorrow’s Smash Bros.-focused Nintendo Direct.
Source: Game Jouhou (Japanese) via Siliconera
