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is a Japanese game designer, producer,
programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles Software development, ''software developer'' and Software engineering, ''software engineer' ...
, and
engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...
, who headed
Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...
's AM2 team for 18 years. Considered one of the first auteurs of video games, he has been responsible for a number of Sega's arcade hits, including
three-dimensional In geometry, a three-dimensional space (3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a mathematical space in which three values (''coordinates'') are required to determine the position (geometry), position of a point (geometry), poi ...
sprite-scaling games that used "taikan" motion simulator arcade cabinets, such as '' Hang-On'', '' Space Harrier'', '' Out Run'' and '' After Burner'', and pioneering polygonal 3D games such as '' Virtua Racing'' and '' Virtua Fighter'', which are some of the games besides others from rival companies during that era credited with popularizing 3D graphics in video games; as well as the critically acclaimed '' Shenmue'' series. As a hardware engineer, he led the development of various
arcade system board An arcade video game is an arcade game that takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. All arcade video games are coin-opera ...
s, including the Sega Space Harrier, Model 1, Model 2 and Model 3, and was involved in the technical development of the Dreamcast console and its corresponding NAOMI arcade hardware. In 2003, Suzuki became the sixth person to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame. ''
IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...
'' listed him at #9 in their Top 100 Game Creators of All Time list. In 2011, he received the Pioneer Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards.


Career

While studying at university, Yu Suzuki had written an undergraduate
thesis A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...
on the subject of
3D computer graphics 3D computer graphics, sometimes called Computer-generated imagery, CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional Computer-generated imagery, computer graphics, are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian coor ...
in
video games A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
.
Part 1
an


Sega AM2

Suzuki joined
Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...
in 1983 as a
programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles Software development, ''software developer'' and Software engineering, ''software engineer' ...
. In his first year, he created a 2D boxing game called '' Champion Boxing'' for Sega's first home game console, the SG-1000. According to Suzuki, the executive staff at Sega found the game so impressive that they released it in arcades as-is by simply installing an SG-1000 into an arcade cabinet. He was promoted to project leader while still in his first year at the company. Then, Suzuki began working on another arcade game which would prove to be the big stepping-off point of his career. "To develop this game," Suzuki told ''G4TV'', "I rode on motorcycles a lot. When we came up with the prototype (for the arcades), I would ride on that prototype bike for hours and hours every day." His efforts culminated into the game '' Hang-On'', released in 1985. ''Hang-On'' was a success as it broke new ground in arcade technology. It did not feature any traditional controls, as the movement of the on-screen
avatar Avatar (, ; ) is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means . It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance" is sometimes u ...
was dictated by the movements the player made with their body on the
motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar from a saddle-style ...
cabinet. This began the "Taikan" trend, the use of motion-controlled hydraulic simulator arcade cabinets in many arcade games of the late 1980s, two decades before motion controls became popular on
video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can typically be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally ...
s. The three-dimensional sprite/ tile scaling was handled in a similar manner to textures in later texture-mapped polygonal 3D games of the 1990s. Suzuki stated that his "designs were always 3D from the beginning. All the calculations in the system were 3D, even from Hang-On. I calculated the position, scale, and zoom rate in 3D and converted it backwards to 2D. So I was always thinking in 3D." He soon followed with the 3D-esque third-person shooter game '' Space Harrier'' later that year. Showing his interest in Ferraris, Suzuki created the driving simulator '' Out Run'', which was released in 1986. Although it didn't officially feature a Ferrari, the player controlled a car that looked almost exactly like one. ''Out Run'' offered players a wide variety of driving paths and routes to complete the game, adding elements of
nonlinear gameplay A video game with nonlinear gameplay presents players with challenges that can be completed in a number of different sequences. Each may take on (or even encounter) only some of the challenges possible, and the same challenges may be played in a ...
and increasing replay value. It also featured a radio with three songs to choose from as players drove through the wide variety of landscapes. At the Golden Joystick Awards, ''Out Run'' was awarded the Game of the Year award. Suzuki had been interested in 3D technology since his days in college. ''Space Harrier'' and ''Out Run'' had graphics similar to 3D, but could not fully utilize the capabilities. Suzuki's later hits included the jet fighting '' After Burner'' series in the late 1980s and the roller coaster kart racer '' Power Drift'' in 1988. Improving on the "Super Scaler" technology and road scrolling effects of ''Hang-On'' and ''Out Run'', ''Power Drift'' created "all of its track layouts with flat bitmaps" to simulate a "wholly 3D space using strictly 2D technology." In 1990, Suzuki brought out a spiritual sequel to ''After Burner'' called '' G-LOC''. It featured the R360, a gyroscopic motion cabinet that rotated 360 degrees to give players the realistic illusion of flying a fighter jet. Yu Suzuki introduced and spearheaded the Model series of arcade hardware which would help lay the foundation for 3D arcade games for AM2 but other arcade departments at Sega as well In 1992, they released the 3D Formula 1 racer '' Virtua Racing'', which was considered one of, if not the most, realistic-looking arcade games on the market at that time. ''
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
'' listed it as one of the 15 most influential video games of all time, commenting: "It wasn't the first fully polygonal game on the market ... but along with '' Virtua Fighter'', Sega's 1993 release on the same hardware, it was one of the games alongside several others from different rival company developers that popularized polygonals to the masses." In 1993, Suzuki created '' Virtua Fighter'', the first 3D
fighting game The fighting game video game genre, genre involves combat between multiple characters, often (but not limited to) one-on-one battles. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as Blocking (martial arts), blocking, grappling, counter- ...
, which became enormously popular and spawned a series of sequels and spinoffs. It inspired many 3D fighting games such as the '' Tekken'' and '' Soul Calibur'' series. Some of the
Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...
(SCE) staff involved in the creation of the original
PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...
console credit ''Virtua Fighter'' as inspiration for the PlayStation's 3D graphics hardware. According to SCE's former producer Ryoji Akagawa and chairman Shigeo Maruyama, the PlayStation was originally being considered as a 2D focused hardware, and it wasn't until the success of ''Virtua Fighter'' in the arcades that they decided to design the PlayStation as a 3D focused hardware. ''1UP'' listed ''Virtua Fighter'' as one of the 50 most important games of all time. They credited it for creating the 3D fighting game genre, and more generally, demonstrating the potential of 3D polygon human characters (as the first to implement them in a useful way), showing the potential of realistic gameplay (introducing a character physics system and realistic character animations for the time), and introducing fighting game concepts such as the ring-out and the block button. After developing the Sega Model 1, he worked on the development of the Sega Model 2. He acquired
Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...
's military texture mapping technology that cost millions and managed to engineer it down to $50 per chip, which he used to introduce texture-mapped 3D characters with '' Virtua Fighter 2''. The game industry gained mass-produced texture mapping as a result. ''Virtua Fighter 2'' (1994) also introduced the use of
motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mocap or mo-cap, for short) is the process of recording high-resolution motion (physics), movement of objects or people into a computer system. It is used in Military science, military, entertainment, sports ...
animation technology, which was previously limited to the health industry. He then led the development of the Sega Model 3, which debuted with '' Virtua Fighter 3''. In 1996, ''
Computer and Video Games ''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') is a British-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot web ...
'' described ''Virtua Fighter 3'' as "the most astounding display of video game graphic muscle ever in the history of this industry." The ''Virtua Fighter'' series was recognized by the
Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...
, as an application which made great contributions to society in the field of art and entertainment. Suzuki also oversaw most of the home console conversions of AM2's arcade games. As a producer, he worked on games such as '' Daytona USA'', which featured texture filtering in 1993, and '' Virtua Cop'', which in 1994 introduced 3D polygons to light gun shooters, and influenced the seminal 1997
first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...
'' GoldenEye 007''. Listing him in their "75 Most Important People in the Games Industry of 1995", '' Next Generation'' summarized that "Nobody has pushed arcade gaming as far as Yu Suzuki, and Suzuki just keeps on pushing." Suzuki's '' Shenmue'' for the Dreamcast gave rise to a new style of adventure games, bending it away from the typical mold most games of its nature seem to fit into, with Suzuki's own concept denoted as " FREE" ("Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment"). ''Shenmue'' was the most expensive game to be developed until ''
Grand Theft Auto IV ''Grand Theft Auto IV'' is a 2008 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the sixth main entry in the Grand Theft Auto, ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2004's ''Grand Theft Auto: San And ...
'' in 2008, with the whole project costing US$70 million, equivalent to US$93 million in 2011. ''Shenmue'' was a major step forward for 3D open world,
nonlinear gameplay A video game with nonlinear gameplay presents players with challenges that can be completed in a number of different sequences. Each may take on (or even encounter) only some of the challenges possible, and the same challenges may be played in a ...
, touted as offering an unparalleled level of player freedom, giving them full reign to explore an expansive sandbox city with its own day-night cycles, changing weather, and fully voiced non-player characters going about their daily routines. The game's large interactive environments, level of detail and the scope of its urban sandbox exploration has been compared to later sandbox games like '' Grand Theft Auto III'' and its sequels, Sega's own '' Yakuza'' series, '' Fallout 3'' and '' Deadly Premonition''. The game also revived the quick time event mechanic and coined a name for it, "QTE". The mechanic has since appeared in many later titles, including popular
action game An action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction time. The genre includes a large variety of sub-genres, such as fighting games, beat 'em ups, shooter games, rhythm games and ...
s such as '' Resident Evil 4'', '' God of War'', '' Tomb Raider: Legend'', '' Heavenly Sword'' and ''
Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy ''Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy'' is a Third-person shooter, third-person Action game, action video game developed by High Moon Studios and published by Vivendi Games for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game expands upon Robert Ludlu ...
''. Suzuki's arcade game '' Ferrari F355 Challenge'' was a racing simulator created upon a strong partnership with
Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello. Founded in 1939 by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988), the company built Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, its first car in 1940, adopted its current name in 1945, and be ...
. Rubens Barrichello of the F1 Team Ferrari was quoted by Suzuki to "have considered to purchase one for practicing." The game was considered the most accurate racing simulation of the Ferrari F355 possible up until that time. After '' Shenmue II'', he served as a producer for three last games, '' OutRun 2'' and '' Virtua Cop 3'' in 2003 and '' Sega Race TV'' in 2008. Hiroshi Kataoka succeeded him as head of AM2 department.


Departure from Sega

After his departure from AM2, Yu Suzuki was involved in three ill-fated projects as a director. '' PsyPhi'' was a touchscreen fighting arcade game, that initially had concepts of curved screens which never got past the concept stage. The game was however successfully completed with standard touchscreens, but was never shipped as it performed poorly at location testing. Players' fingers heated up from the friction of moving over the screen, making the game painful to play. Another problem was the viability of the machine in a modern arcade environment due to arcade operators preferring cheaper cabinets with more standard inputs. '' Shenmue Online'' was part of Sega's initiative to penetrate the rising Asian MMO RPG markets. With the withdrawal of Sega's online division in China, development of ''Shenmue Online'' was quietly cancelled. The development of ''Shenmue Online'' cost Sega and JCEntertainment almost $26 million. Another MMO called ''Pure Breed'' never got past the concept stage. It involved a western surrealist art style, and revolved around pet and human relationships. In the spring of 2009, rumors surfaced that Yu Suzuki would step down from Sega after 26 years of employment. However, an article written by Brendan Sinclair, a reporter for the American video game journalism website ''GameSpot'', stated the rumors to be false and that an anonymous representative for Sega of America revealed that Suzuki was in fact not retiring, but staying "in a much more diminished capacity" than in the past. Suzuki planned to officially leave Sega in September 2011 to concentrate on his own development studio Ys Net, while retaining an advisory role within Sega. His last position at Sega was Creative Officer along with Toshihiro Nagoshi and Hiroshi Kataoka. As of 2019, Suzuki remains as a consult for Sega, and suggested that he might return to the ''Virtua Fighter'' franchise.


Ys Net

In the fall of 2010, Suzuki returned with '' Shenmue City'', developed by Sunsoft and Ys Net (Yu Suzuki's new studio) for Yahoo Games. In December 2010, ''1UP'' posted an interview with Yu Suzuki. It was his first English interview in several years. It was also a career retrospective conducted by former ''1UP'' Editor in Chief James Mielke with Tak Hirai (both employees at Tetsuya Mizuguchi's
Q Entertainment was a Japanese video game developer. The studio created, produced, and published digital entertainment content across multiple game consoles, PC broadband and mobile units. It was founded on October 10, 2003 by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, formerly of S ...
). In March 2011, Yu Suzuki was at GDC to receive a pioneer award for his body of work. Prior to the award ceremony, he participated in an open panel career retrospective hosted by Mark Cerny. Also at GDC he participated with MEGA64 to record his voice for a parody video on "how Shenmue was meant to end". In December 2011, Yu Suzuki flew to TGS (Toulouse Game Show) in France and participated in an open panel career retrospective. He also participated in an open with '' Tekken'' producer Katsuhiro Harada. They talked about their games and fought each other in both of their respected fighting franchises. In 2012, Suzuki designed a mobile game for the '' Virtua Fighter'' series, titled ''Cool Champ''. In 2013, Suzuki designed a new shooting game, titled ''Shooting Wars'' with Premium Agency; this was Ys Net's first original game unrelated to any of Suzuki's previous Sega franchises. In July 2013, Suzuki traveled to Monaco to attend the Monaco Animé Game Show. On March 19, 2014, Yu Suzuki held a ''Shenmue'' postmortem at the Game Developers Conference 2014, with Suzuki discussing the development of ''Shenmue''. In June the same year, Yu Suzuki received a "Legend Award" in Barcelona, Spain during Gamelab Barcelona 2014. On June 16, 2015, '' Shenmue III'' was revealed at E3 as a Kickstarter
crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...
campaign. It became the fastest game ever to reach the one million dollar funding mark on the Kickstarter platform, ultimately raising 6.33 million dollars. Suzuki began his work as director of ''Shenmue III''s development immediately following the successful funding campaign in July 2015. On February 27, 2016, Suzuki appeared as a guest presenter at the annual Monaco Anime Games International Conferences (MAGIC), where he showed images and video clips of the development progress for ''Shenmue III'' to conference attendees. On June 22, 2022, YS-Net released '' Air Twister'' exclusively to
Apple Arcade Apple Arcade is a video game subscription service offered by Apple Inc. It is available through a dedicated tab of the App Store on devices running iOS 13, visionOS, tvOS 13, iPadOS 13, and macOS Catalina or later. The service launched o ...
. YS Net has continued to support the game with regular updates and expanded content. Announced at the Game Awards 2024, Ys-Net released Steel Paws exclusively to Netflix Games on March 25, 2025. It is an Action-RPG that features a young girl and her robot companions who explore a mysterious tower that emerges from the ground every 100 years.


Personal life

Suzuki said in an interview that while he greatly enjoys creating games, he has relatively little interest in playing them and prefers to spend his free time watching
movie A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
s and visiting theme parks.


Games developed


Canceled games

* '' Propeller Arena'' – Producer * ''Pure Breed'' – Concept * '' Psy-Phi'' – Director, producer * '' Shenmue Online'' – Director On top of games, Yu Suzuki led the creation of a technical demo "Tower of Babel" prepared for the Dreamcast showcase at Tokyo New Otani Hotel on May 1, 1998.


Hardware developed

* Sega Space Harrier (1985) * Sega Model 1 (1992) * Sega Model 2 (1993) * Sega Model 3 (1996) * Dreamcast (1998) * Sega NAOMI (1998)


References


Further reading

* Benjamin Berget. ''Yū Suzuki - Le Maître de Sega (de l'arcade à Shenmue)''. 2015, Geeks-Line,


External links

*
Yu Suzuki
profile on
MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...
*
YS Net
(official site)
System16 - The Arcade Museum


June 2002 {{DEFAULTSORT:Suzuki, Yu Sega people Shenmue 1958 births Japanese video game directors Japanese video game designers Japanese video game producers Living people People from Iwate Prefecture Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame inductees Game Developers Conference Pioneer Award recipients Golden Joystick Award winners