It was reported not long ago that Masahiro Sakurai, the man who is overseeing the development of the next Smash Bros, slated for both the Wii U and 3DS, suffers from repetitive strain injuries. Unfortunately, it would seem that the condition is far more seriously than original thought.
In a previous installment of his Famitu column, Sakurai stated that his RSI had gotten so bad that it was starting to restrict his work and personal life. And according to Polygon, the most recent update indicates that the situation has simply gotten worse:
"Not only am I getting calcific tendonitis, but they've also found what are apparently several ruptures in the muscles. My upper arm hurts, and there's this chronic dull pain in my elbow joint as well. On the lower arm, there's this feeling of fatigue around the flexor muscles that turns into pain when I use a keyboard or game controller with my fingers."
Sakurai goes on to state the sad and simple truth that every single person who must deal with chronic and severe RSI knows already: there is no quick and easy cure. The doctor's orders are to not use his right arm or hand, which means doing everything with the left half of his body.
And unfortunately it's now officially impacting the games that he's overseeing:
"As a director, I don't have much time in the weekdays to proceed along with my own work… The entire day is spent overseeing other people, holding meetings, working on other proposals, making visits elsewhere and so on. If I can get everything squared away, then I can work on my own stuff, but most of the time there's just an overwhelming lack of time.
Often I go in on my off-days to catch up on my own work, but with my body going on me like this, I have to cut these extra days out of my schedule and even with that I can't use my right arm very much to control things. If this disorder lingers, or if it never gets fixed, there's no telling what impact that would have on the project."
Ontop of all that, Sakurai also notes that due to his condition, he is unable to play Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
