Nintendo have announced that the new Super Smash Bros. game for the WiiU and 3DS will be co-produced by Namco Bandai.

Series lead, Masahiro Sakurai, will still lead the team, and developers Project Sora will still be involved, but development will be handled by Namco Bandai. The news was confirmed this morning by Satoru Iwata at a Nintendo Direct broadcast.

Sakurai has been coy on the new Super Smash Bros., revealing little about one of Nintendo’s most anticipated sequels. Commenting on the new game he said:

“I would love to provide more information, but for now, I’m going to stay quiet until I have something solid to show you.

“The project has just gotten started. Bear in mind that not only are we developing two titles simultaneously, but we announced the project before we even started actual development, so I’m afraid we will likely have to keep you waiting for quite a while. Please be patient.”

The people at Namco Bandai were excited at the prospect of working on one of Nintendo’s biggest series. Yoshito Higuchi, who has previously worked on Soul Calibur, will be the director for the new Super Smash Bros. game. Speaking about Namco Bandai’s involvement he said:

“I’m so honored to be able to join the Super Smash Bros. team – that globally popular series of which Japan is particularly proud – and work alongside Mr. Sakurai.

“All the top creators from Namco Bandai are gathered here to create a never-before-seen dream team for this project.

“We will fully utilise our experience and knowledge in action/fighting game development, technical capability, and organisation strength, and we hereby promise you that we will developer the best and most powerful ‘Super Smash Bros.’ titles ever!”

We are starting to become a little worried about the new Super Smash Bros. Back in April Sakurai discussed changing the game’s winning formula saying that he wants to take the series in a new direction.

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