Super Smash Bros. developer Masahiro Sakurai has frequently demonstrated his desire to make game experiences as smooth and accessible as possible for the player.
In a recent livestream event to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Hamster's Arcade Archives series, he talked on-stage with fellow creator Hideki Kamiya (Bayonetta, Resident Evil 2) and spoke of how the GameCube title Kirby Air Ride was originally meant to include Dolby Surround, but he abandoned the idea in favour of cutting down player wait time (thanks, Automaton).
According to Sakurai, having to wait for just one or two seconds for the Dolby Surround logo to appear upon booting up the game was simply too long. He stated:
“I feel very sorry for making the user wait. If you take 1 second from each user, that means you’ll be taking 10,000 seconds from 10,000 people. The more this repeats over the years, the more time you will cause players to lose.”
This might sound like overkill to some, but it just goes to show how much Sakurai values the player's time. Interestingly, Sakurai's involvement with Kirby Air Ride would also lead to his resignation from HAL Laboratory. He stated at the time that the industry's focus on creating sequels proved 'tough' for him.
Sakurai is, of course, putting a lot of energy into his YouTube channel these days, but even that will be coming to a close at some point later this year.