Masahiro Sakurai Commented on Not Monetizing His Channel

The “Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games” channel has wrapped up, and the channel’s owner sat down for an interview with DenFamiNicoGamer to look back at the channel that he had run for around two years. One of the highlights of this interview covered Sakurai’s decision not to have the channel monetized. [Thanks, DenFamiNicoGamer!]

In the special finale episode, Sakurai revealed that despite spending around 90 million yen (~$630,000) to produce the whole channel, he received no income at all since he did not monetize the channel. In the new interview, Sakurai noted his intention to share the know-how of game development and contribute to the gaming industry as a volunteer.

Sakurai made this decision because he noticed a stigma where people would see information-sharing channels with monetization in a different light. In addition, many game companies and illustrators would also apply more regulations when their game footage or illustrations were to be used in monetized videos.

The “Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games” channel is still available on YouTube in Japanese and English versions, although there are no more new episodes for the foreseeable future. The Japanese game creator is busy working on a new confidential game project, as he had announced in the special finale episode.