Nintendo opens new studio helmed by Sakurai

Nintendo has announced the opening of a new Tokyo-based studio named Project Sora. The studio will be helmed by Smash Bros director Masahiro Sakurai, who seems to have been given complete creative freedom for the project. The official website is relatively bare at the moment, but includes a dialogue between Sakurai and Iwata, in which they discuss the studio's direction.

Information regarding the studio's first title is sparse, though Iwata says that it is "something that can be made because Nintendo is backing you up, but is also something that Nintendo could not make." He also indicates that it doesn't fit in the Touch Generations catalog, hopefully meaning it'll be geared more towards hardcore gamers. "If one were simply considering effective use of funding, we'd have went [sic] with a plan similar to Touch Generations. But that's not I wanted."

We're intrigued to find out more about Project Sora, but it's very early days. Give them a year or so and we should be hearing a lot more about what they've got cooking.

[Via GI.biz]