Yu Suzuki *OUT* @ AM2?!?! AM2 with new president.

from everybody's favorite website, MagicBox, comes very, very, very, disturbing news for AM2 fans, as well as Sega fans in general. There is a new head man at AM2, according to MagicBox, and Mr. Suzuki will be heading 2(?) new development houses. Some other interesting tidbits from MagicBox.

Whether there is misinterpretation from MagicBox has yet to be seen. Disturbing news indeed.

If true, I will not... cannot see the coconut trees in the same light again. Although I do realize, Yu became much more of a "father figure" to AM2, much like Bobby Bowden just "oversees" things at Florida State football- leaving much of the running of things to lower coaches... as some have speculated.

Maybe there was something when he wasn't there at the Kakutou Shinseki II tournament as he handed out the trophy at the first tourney.

What will also be interesting is what development house will do Shenmue III. If true, it's gonna set off dominoes.

BTW, MB mentions a restructuring of development houses from 9... to 5. Who's gonna get axed?

Woe is me, woe is me,...

BTW, I also do realize just how much credit MB has with some of you. Read with descretion, although I have a gut feeling about this. I thought Sega was back in the black?

 

http://virtuafighter.com/versuscity/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=tecmo&Number=77037&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

Old news and for me REALLY old news.
I was ridiculed here when I said Suzuki was on his way out in threads in the past.

 

This news was also posted on gamers.com (Ziff Davis).

 

[ QUOTE ]
Fishie said:

http://virtuafighter.com/versuscity/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=tecmo&Number=77037&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

Old news and for me REALLY old news.
I was ridiculed here when I said Suzuki was on his way out in threads in the past.


[/ QUOTE ]

Here's another for ya :

http://virtuafighter.com/versuscity/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=console&Number=73236&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=4&vc=1

Well you were right.

 

Thanks, im usualy right on matters like this.

 

[ QUOTE ]
Fishie said:

http://virtuafighter.com/versuscity/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=tecmo&Number=77037&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

Old news and for me REALLY old news.
I was ridiculed here when I said Suzuki was on his way out in threads in the past.


[/ QUOTE ]

No, you were ridiculed because you made bullshit statements with no backing whatsoever. Some of your vitriolic claims included "Yu had nothing to do with Shenmue 2 development", "he wasn't respectected inside Sega", and "most of AM2 hits were not Yu's work".

Besides which, I'm not sure how you can claim this Magicbox news supports your vitriol spouting. Here's the quote from Magic-box:

Sega announced that Hiroshi Kataoka has been assumed the president of Sega-AM2. Previously Yu Suzuki is the president of Sega-AM2, he is now organizing two new in-house development studios for Sega.

Sounds more like a promotion to me. Having control over the birth of two new teams is hardly news that Yu "is on the way out" at Sega. If anything, I think this suggests Suzuki will a more active part in new games development at Sega.

 

Yu has a token position at the same board Naka and Nagoshi preside at.
Yu has no say in what goes on and most meetings take place witouth his presence, yes officialy he has been promoted to a high position, in reality he has been promoted AWAY from any and all responsibility and he spends his days doing basicaly nothing.

And this is not magic box news, its official and yes the reason that as a game SM2 turned out much better then the first one was becouse Suzuki was less involved.

 

Well, I have to echo Maximum's comments. Moving away from game development to management doesn't necessarily mean Suzuki has less influence, or that he is any less important. Isn't Miyamoto's progression in Nintendo similar?

I don't know what Suzuki's position in Sega is, nor do I care quite frankly--Suzuki will always have my respect for creating VF. Of course, my respect also extends to everyone else who had taken over to continue the development and progression of VF, like Kataoka.

As for your comments, Fishie...they were articulated in a way that makes it seem as though you have something personal against Suzuki.

 

Well, I just hope that this "restructuring" DOESN'T mean cutting back on R&D.

 

[ QUOTE ]
Fishie said:

Yu has a token position at the same board Naka and Nagoshi preside at.
Yu has no say in what goes on and most meetings take place witouth his presence, yes officialy he has been promoted to a high position, in reality he has been promoted AWAY from any and all responsibility and he spends his days doing basicaly nothing.

And this is not magic box news, its official and yes the reason that as a game SM2 turned out much better then the first one was becouse Suzuki was less involved.



[/ QUOTE ]

Bah, you make it sound like Suzuki is some thorn in Sega's side, some old outcast who wanders Sega's offices like a wraith. If there was even a hint of truth in what you're saying Yu would have packed his bags and left long ago.

And there you go again, like some stuck record, claiming that Shenmue 2 was the best game in the series (I happen to think the opposite), and that Yu had nothing to do with it's development.

 

Heading up two new divisions sounds more like a promotion to me. Sega is not afraid to announce their demotions. Check out the bonus_section->promo at www.classicgaming.com/japangaming and look at the "What's Shenmue". It's without a doubt the coolest demo of a game ever made (vid of it in the video section as well).

Anyways, the title of it is:
"What's Shenmue? The Search for Yukawa, Sega's Ex-Senmu"
AS 'Senmu' is the head of promotions. The position that Yukawa held until Sega realized that DC launch sales sucked ass. He was promptly demoted, and the whole world new about it --- and why.

 

He is NOT heading up two new development houses.
Whats happening is that four R&D teams will be closed, teams will get reshuffled and two new ones will be formed.
The commitee wich Suzuki is part of is some sort of a think thank who will help managment decide who goes where and what games will be made and like I said before Suzuki´s chair at that commitee is a decorative one.
The biggest decisions are made by the two most succesfull R&D heads within Sega(wich would be Nagoshi and Naka, thats why at E3 for instance they were inseperable).
Suzuki has been out of grace for years and managed to retain his position thanks to the late Isao Ohkawa.

I dont hate Suzuki, I like a lot of his games.
Thing is more often then not(just as is the case with Nintendo and Miyamoto) he gets credited for things he has jack shit to do with.

 

In your opinion then, when did Suzuki start to loose his edge? Surely, it can't be from poor sales can it...?

 

Actually yes.
His projects take too long and cost to much money.
Ferarri is nice from a prestige standpoint but the game was a gargantuan money pitt, as was Shen Mue1.
Then there are lots of projects wich he started and then couldnt bother to finish after having spend millions on em.
The guy is not much of a manager.

 

[ QUOTE ]
Fishie said:

Actually yes.
His projects take too long and cost to much money.
Ferarri is nice from a prestige standpoint but the game was a gargantuan money pitt, as was Shen Mue1.
Then there are lots of projects wich he started and then couldnt bother to finish after having spend millions on em.
The guy is not much of a manager.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, Shenmue cost an incredible amount of cash to develop, but the technology used in its creation made Shenmue 2 a breeze to develop and produce (it uses the same engine). This is why I find your comments about Yu having nothing to do with Shenmue 2 absurd. Effectively SM2 is a story progression from SM1, using exactly the same elements. Also, allot of the animation technology and camera code from Shenmue went into Virtua Fighter 4 production, so it's not all bad.

As for your claims that Suzuki is now a middle manager - are we then to believe that Sega are lying when they say Suzuki is directing Outrun 2?

You may have a point about Yu's projects requiring huge investments of cash (money Sega can no longer afford), but the finished products are, in my opinion, works of absolute genius. I couldn't care less how good a manager Suzuki is or how many copies Shenmue sold, what matters to me is the incredible games he creates.

 

Dude stop insisting I said that he had NOTHING to do with SM2, I never said that.
Dont exagerate the things that I DID say.

Oh yeah the animation went into VF4 roflol, thats a good one, especialy considering the fact that AM2 didnt even do the animation themselves for their last few fighters.

 

sega in general suck at management, don't give all the credit to yu suzuki!... /versus/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

i like this aguement^^

 

Hey Fishie, that's why I like the guy. It was like the 80's with Suzuki, sound and all. Money was no object. The 'Model' arcade boards were the most expensive... Shenmue was the most expensive... Ferrari was the most expensive... He didn't let money get in the way of his vision. All arcade hardware from early on pushed the boundaries of the current technology of that time, and I loved it because it all was mindblowing eye candy... with gameplay! Whether this spending was good in the long run for the company, I don't know, but with his "insistance," alot of great games were made- and no doubt about it, with help from Nagoshi and others. But without his "vision," none of these games would have been made.

Currently, we see uninspiring arcade hardware at Sega.

Now, again, I don't know how much "hands on" Suzuki has had lately, or before; but from reading past interviews, his philosophy in game making is in sync with mine. It's sad because really, AM2 is his company, and it was under his reign that truly genre defining games were made. The current games are debatable whether he had any influence in them, like you said, and I'll take your word... but don't tell me he had zero input in the earlier games like Outrun, Space Harrier, and such.

 

Bare Knuckle has a good point. No matter how bad he 'sucked' at manager - he learned it from the pros.

And as before, not saying anyone's wrong at this point, but Sega's not embarrassed about their demotions. I'd wait for an announcement stating why they moved him before speculating.

 

Look! At the end of the day, Suzuki is staying withing Sega and making two new IN-HOUSE develpoment units (remember AM-3, among others during Sega's better years, before they mysteriously dissappeared). The fact that Yu Suzuki is in this position does not necessarily mean that he will have little or no say on how Sega and it's development is run, because of his track record. As a result, he is still a dramatically influencial figure in the company. This is the man who practically gave birth to 3D games. He gave us the glorious Shenmue (why can't Ryo see that Nazomi likes him!?!), the best, reality based RPG ever!! Bring on part 3!!! And even Ferrari: F355 Challenge with it's super-realistic driving physics and 3-screen format...something that is now being copied (like MANY of Sega's ideas, like the analogue stick on the Saturn, internet access for consoles i.e. Dreamcast, etc) by new driving sims, not to mention Virtua Fighter itself!

This is GOOD news in my view...this man will NOT let the company fall. In fact, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Sega will rise again.

Oh, and if my Dreamcast and Saturn were still working, I'm sure they'd get more play time than my PS2. Sony may be a huge, faceless company with dollar-bills as their mascot, but Sega have the heart and soul of what it means to be a gamer. Hell, they've been in the race from the start, and now they've been tossed asside and kept running with the average crowd by malicious freaks...kinda like the story of Michael Jackson.

Long live the spikey, blue one! Amen!!