Yu Suzuki retires

[Edgerock]

http://kotaku.com/5197880/shenmue-creat ... -from-sega

The creator of titles like Virtua Fighter, OutRun and Shenmue has retired from his Creative Officer position at Sega of Japan, Sega announced this week. But the company isn't done with Yu Suzuki just yet.

While Sega-Sammy announced that Suzuki had "retired" from his role as Creative Officer of the AM Plus R&D department, he'll still have some influence at Sega. The developer will continue on as manager of that group, in a role that GameSpot, by way of Sega reps, says is of "diminished capacity."

[Malchik]

He made the right decision. He had his hand in some great games for a great company. Then the new millennium came round.

[Crisis]

Isn't this sort of thing, like, humiliating for the Japanese? I seem to recall being demoted to a position of "diminished capacity" being used before on developers who failed their company, and resignation/retirement being an embarrassing process in general.

[Kogen]

He retired from the team he was on, not the company. It is not a big deal.

[gr4yJ4Y]

This is sad news. He made so many hits for Sega and they couldn't get over Shenmue bombing. Poor guy.

[Kogen]

It is not like it was 'just him', it was the entire team. AM2 are still good without him.

[Baba O'Riley]

For those of you wondering, this is how retirement works in Japan (according to a Nobel prize winning economist and one of the most cited legal scholars of all time.)

http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/archi ... remen.html