Yu Suzuki no longer with Sega.
Looking forward to Shenmue Online or Psy Phi? Well, your wait is over! I should actually say it was pointless. Yu Suzuki officially no longer works with Sega. As the producer of some of my favorite Sega arcade titles (see: Space Harrier, Virtual Cop, Power Drift, etc), I must admit that I'm more than a little sad to see him go.
Yu Suzuki has an impressive body of work, very few developers can really point at a list with as many hit titles has this man has cranked out. In a recent Gamasutra interview with Simon Jeffery, he was asked what the old sack was up to:
Yeah. He's kind of his own man right now. Every now and again, he'll come up with an idea, and I don't think anything has come out of that yet, but we're still working with him. He's not an employee anymore, but...
Apparently, he's in China working on an online title. My guess is it is not Sega RaceTV. I can only hope this is not a death sentence for his career. Although, with the exception of the reminisce of Grasshoppers Studio working on/with/at Platinum Games, Sega was a bit of a sinking ship anyway.
The Evolution Of Sega: A Conversation With Simon Jeffery [Gamasutra]
[via 1UP]
Asterick
Posted to Video Games on 12 August 2008
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: greener pastures, psy phi, sega, shenmue, space harrier, yu suzuki
Name: Dave
Suzuki is one of those people in game design that does not get the recognition that he deserves. His designs are unique, fascinating, and at times so daring that no developer other than Sega could handle them. Too many designers will limit themselves with a single genre, but Suzuki is one of those people that is actually able to pull off just about anything: Racing, action, adventure, "epic stories," fighting, you name it. It'll be as bizarre as it is interesting to see what projects he moves onto outside of Sega. For a lot of people (self included), his name is synonymous with Sega and vice versa.
Sad to see him go. Sega had some really strong talent, I don't know what is going on with them now.