is a Japanese game designer, producer, programmer and engineer who headed Sega'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 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, as well as the critically acclaimed Shenmue series.
Sega AM2
Suzuki joined Sega in 1983 as a programmer. 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.
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 an expensive title for Sega, with Suzuki stating in 2011 that the project cost approximately US$47 million including marketing.
Ys Net
thumb|Suzuki and [[Mark Cerny at Game Developers Conference 2011]]
In the fall of 2010, Suzuki returned with Shenmue City, developed by Sunsoft and Ys Net (Yu Suzuki's new studio) for Yahoo Games. 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. YS Net has continued to support the game with regular updates and expanded content.
On December 12, 2024, Bandai Namco announced YS Net's next game, Steel Paws, at The Game Awards 2024. YS Net announced Steel Paws as a mobile game to be exclusively released for Netflix Games. It is an action role-playing game 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 movies and visiting theme parks.
Games developed
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
|-
|scope=row|1984
| Champion Boxing
| Programmer
|-
|scope=row rowspan="2" |1985
| Hang-On
| Rowspan="5" |Director, lead programmer
|-
| Space Harrier
|-
|scope=row|1986
| Out Run
|-
|scope=row|1987
| After Burner
|-
|scope=row rowspan="2" |1988
| Power Drift
|-
| Dynamite Düx
|rowspan="2" |Producer
|-
| GP Rider
|rowspan="5"| Producer
|-
| Soreike Kokology
|rowspan="2" |Producer
|-
| Soreike Kokology 2
|rowspan="3" |Producer
|-
|scope=row|2008
| Sega Race TV
|-
|scope=row|2010
| Shenmue City
| rowspan="4" |Director
|-
|scope=row|2011
| Virtua Fighter: Cool Champ
|-
|scope=row|2013
| Bullet Pirates
|-
|scope=row|2014
| Virtua Fighter: Fever Combo
|-
|scope=row|2019
| Shenmue III
| Director, producer, writer
|-
|scope=row|2022
| Air Twister
| rowspan="2" |Director, producer
|-
|2025
| Steel Paws
|}
Canceled games
- Propeller Arena – Producer
- Pure Breed – Concept
Hardware developed
- Sega Space Harrier (1985)
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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
- YS Net (official site)
- System16 - The Arcade Museum
- Interview with Yu Suzuki and Will Wright, June 2002