Yu Suzuki retires from SEGA R&D News
Dreamcast Retro News by Oli Welsh
According to GameSpot, SEGA Sammy has announced that legendary designer and producer Yu Suzuki has retired from active, creative development work.
The creator of Virtua Fighter and Shenmue, who oversaw a string of early arcade classics at SEGA - Space Harrier, Afterburner and OutRun among them - will no longer be an R&D "creative officer". He will remain with the company as manager of the Research & Development department for one of SEGA's arcade divisions, AM Plus.
AM Plus has so far released two games in Japan, Psy Phi and SEGA Race TV. Suzuki has had such a low profile within SEGA recently that Simon Jeffrey, president of the company's American arm, wasn't sure if he was still an employee when Gamasutra asked him last year.
Although his early games will forever be associated with SEGA, Yu Suzuki's work took on a different colour from the Dreamcast era in the late 1990s. He became preoccupied with intense realism in the F355 Challenge racing simulator and the languid adventure series Shenmue, games that had hardcore followings, but never justified their huge development costs.
The Shenmue project was close to Suzuki's heart, but a third game never saw the light of day, and a planned massively multiplayer spin-off, Shenmue Online, was also shelved.
Suzuki's spirit lives on, however, in the evergreen Virtua Fighter and OutRun. OutRun Online Arcade is released on Xbox Live Arcade next week.
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Comments: 1-17 of 17 in total
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I'm not sure Sega can do a re-release of Daytona without paying an extortionate amount for the Daytona license, hence why there haven't been any sequels or Sega Ages releases.
As for this news about Suzuki, it's incredibly sad that Sega's last great designer is quitting, I really badly wanted Shenmue 3. :(
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 06/04/09 @ 09:24
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JohnnyWashnGo
06/04/09 @ 08:42
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Whenever I think of Yu Suzuki I hear that song from Shenmue and F355 on the Dreamcast - 'Take me for a riiiiiiiide'
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dr_shambles
06/04/09 @ 09:15
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Respect to Suzuki-San, and hope he has a very happy retirement. He's created some timeless gaming memories.
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SpaceMidget75
06/04/09 @ 10:48
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I don't give a fuck what anyone else says*, Shenmue was one of my greatest gaming experiences in 30 years of gaming.
The experience at the time of play may have had plenty of niggling faults, but as a lesson in good nostalgia, it can't be touched. Sometimes I forget that I actually wasn't in Japan! * Everyone's entitled to their opinion here, but there's only one right one. ;) |
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quantumsheep
06/04/09 @ 12:15
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/salutes
He's created some astounding games. All respect to the man. |
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I gave up on Shenmue 3 a long time ago - if IP doesn't sell well, if its sequel sells even worse, then it makes business sense to shelve it (unfortunately). I wish Shenmue had reached a wider audience but alas that was not be.
What I, as a huge fan of the games, am desperate for though, is some closure on what the story was actually about. All we got was a very teasing first chunk, left with more questions at the end of the second game than answers. Why oh why can't Sega, or Suzuki issue a press release letting the fans know how that story would have panned out. Surely now that its been decided that Shenmue is an entirely unprofitable franchise, there is little reason to continue guarding its middle chapter and conclusion in such secrecy... What is it all about? What do the mirrors do?
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 06/04/09 @ 16:03
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"Yu Suzuki's work took on a different colour from the Dreamcast era in the late 1990s. He became preoccupied with intense realism"
The pursue of realism was the reason he never made a 2D game even in the 80s so no different colour there. The difference is not a change in his mindset but a change in what was possible and what he was allowed to do. |
Comments: 1-17 of 17 in total
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