Yu Suzuki is perhaps one of Sega's biggest names; with titles like Out Run, Hang On, Virtua Fighter, and Shenmue under his belt, he's left his mark on the industry with some technically innovative and memorable video games. But since the Dreamcast failure/Sega-Sammy merger, he's been quiet in his role as the company's R&D creative officer--so quiet, in fact, that Sega of America CEO Simon Jeffrey once believed Suzuki was no longer employed by the company at all. He's since realized his mistake.
Jeffries' comment may have been a bit misinformed at the time, but with Friday's announcement that Yu Suzuki is indeed stepping down from his position at Sega, the company's American CEO may want to consider starting his own Psychic Friends Network.
According to GameSpot:
[T]his week Sega parent company Sega Sammy announced that the designer has stepped down--the publisher used the word "retired"--from his position as a R&D creative officer with the company. However, he isn't departing Sega entirely. A Sega of America representative confirmed for GameSpot that Suzuki will stay on with the publisher in a diminished capacity, continuing on as manager of the R&D department for Sega's AM Plus division. To date, AM Plus has released a pair of Japanese arcade games, the touchscreen fighter Psy Phi, and the character-driven racer Sega Race TV.
I'll admit that Suzuki's games never really appealed to me, but I've always felt some sort of sympathy towards him as Sega's own Gumpei Yokoi. Like Suzuki, Nintendo's Yokoi was an early (we're talking 1960s. here) innovator at Nintendo who found success in developing classic games like Metroid and, most importantly, the original Game Boy; but when the problematic Virtual Boy met with catastrophic failure in the mid-90s, all of his old successes were forgotten and he eventually resigned out of shame.
Suzuki never really left Sega, but his presence--as well as the Sega "house style"--was certainly lacking after Shenmue failed to meet the acclaimed developer's commercial ambitions. It's a little unfair to say that Shenmue killed Sega--given the state of the company at the time, it was really more of a final blow--but Suzuki's stature at the company had to change greatly after sinking so many millions into what was essentially a pet project with virtually no cross-cultural appeal.
All in all, Suzuki deserves a good, long retirement, but it would still be great to see something innovative from him in the future. That's what he does best, after all.
Related Links:
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