Super Smash Bros. Namco team includes Soul Calibur, Tekken vets

In a special statement released to coincide with the game's announcement during today's Nintendo Direct events, Namco Bandai's Masaya Kobayashi detailed the staffers joining Masahiro Sakurai's Project Sora team to produce the next Super Smash Bros.

Tales series producer and director Yoshito Higuchi and Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs. producer and director Tetsuya Akatsuka were explicitly name dropped, but the are atr sound director of the Soul Calibur franchise and "the main development team staff " for the Tekken series were mentioned too.

"All the top creators from Namco Bandai gathered here to create a never-before-seen dream team for this project," Kobayashi said.

"We will fully utilize our experience and knowledge in action fighting game development, technical capability, and organizational strength, and we hereby promise you that we will develop the best and most powerful Super Smash Bros. title ever."

Sakurai also gave a statement, apologising for keeping quiet on details of the 3DS and Wii U title for now.

"I would love to provide more information, but for now, I'm going to stay quiet until I have something solid to show you," he said.

"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."