We’ve gotten our hands on scans of the latest issue of weekly Famitsu, and within it contains a very interesting column written by none other than Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai.

Sakurai makes a point in saying that while downloadable content that is rapidly put out tends to do better in sales, post-launch DLC was only developed for the latest Super Smash Bros. after the game shipped.

Their reasoning behind creating Mewtwo as a downloadable character was as a thank you to fans who bought Super Smash Bros. on both the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U. Sakurai realized a problem in this, as some users might only own one version of the game. Thus, Mewtwo was also made available as a standalone, paid character.

“Game development is more expensive than ever, and yet the price of games hasn’t changed,” said Sakurai. “More income would help offset that imbalance.” Sakurai mentioned the procedure in creating DLC for Super Smash Bros. as well. “Downloadable content is coming at a premium, as compensation to all the hours put in post-release. Nintendo has the final word on pricing, however, given the number of hours spent on this DLC, I think it’s a great deal.”

Sakurai touched upon future downloadable content, and the excitement of not knowing which characters may be coming. “Which fighter will join the roster next? If we keep releasing content, we can propagate that excitement, and I think this is a good thing.”

Finally, Sakurai mentioned what ultimately drives himself and his development team. “Fighting games take an extreme amount of work to create, so I don’t think we can make that many,” Sakurai said. “We’re developing additional modes, new online features, version updates, and more. It can be exhausting, but ultimately it’s all to make the fans happy.”