From Kotaku:

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 notes that Suzuki has "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."

Suzuki's employment at Sega was called into question last year, when Sega of America boss Simon Jeffery indicated that the creator was no longer working for the company. Jeffery later corrected that, placing Suzuki in a Creative Officer role.

While Shenmue fans should really have given up hope of seeing Shenmue III a long, long time ago, we'd have to think that those still holding a candle for a third chapter should extinguish those hopes. Yes, Suzuki is still a Sega man, but it seems his creative influence is becoming increasingly, let's say, selective.

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Personally I don't see how this negates the chances of a Shenmue 3.  I wouldn't be surprised if Shenmue 3 plans are all written down somewhere at Sega.  Now that the basic Shenmue mechanics are laid down, it's just a matter of making the game.

Chances of another new Yu Suzuki IP are lower now.  They just don't make those sort of (mostly arcade games) anymore.

Maybe he'll go to make it at another company unless Sega own the right to the franchise, in that case your screwed.

Or he'll bring AM Plus up to greatness being more closely involved with a smaller group of developers now. But yeah, the dude is something like 50 years old, gotta let him rest eventually. Before dieing that is.

@mracoon did you even read the post? It's not the company demoting him, or him being pissed @ them and leaving. He's simply getting old.

Yeah, it sucks that we'll never know how Shenmue was going to continue, after part 2's crazy ending. Release it in novel form, I don't care, I want to know what happens!

Sorry, I meant maybe he'll bring Amusement R&D Division back to greatness as that's where he's been moved according to this (official stuffs)!

Ryo, please just hold on a little bit longer.  I know you can do it.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

I was just about to make this thread. You know, even though I really should have given up hope on Shenmue III, I don't think I can and news like this is just so depressing. Not simply from my Shenmue orientated viewpoint but also because it continues to show that SEGA just have little to no integrity and are just 110% profiteering these days.

How does a guy getting older as time goes by mean SEGA has no integrity... He's 51, he'll probably retire this decade, surely there should be some sort of adjustment period both for the company and himself... SEGA still make great games like Valkyria Chronicles and, surprise, people still don't buy them... What's the next step, keep making these same games people don't buy and disappear into oblivion? That's the only step left after they've become a mere third party instead of one of the big three...

"How does a guy getting older as time goes by mean SEGA has no integrity... He's 51, he'll probably retire this decade, surely there should be some sort of adjustment period both for the company and himself... SEGA still make great games like Valkyria Chronicles and, surprise, people still don't buy them... What's the next step, keep making these same games people don't buy and disappear into oblivion? That's the only step left after they've become a mere third party instead of one of the big three..."

More like exposes the consumers for what they really are, a vocal minority wants to think it was the hardcores that dictated what was great before the Wii but SEGA's (and other companies') history proves otherwise as they constantly lost ground when they kept making excellent titles yet they started turning in profits once they started the shovelware machine. Sure they had many bad marketing decisions in the past, but come on, the hardcores can see past that surely, and just appreciate the games. Why would they have faith in good games now after what they have cost them? At least they still make them occasionally, and do make some excellent publishing deals. And for more recent examples look @ EA, how every vocal hardcore gamer considered them the bane of the industry yet once they start putting out titles that are considered a lot more than that (personally I hated Dead Space but at least it was an effort) then they start losing money too, and that also has nothing to do with the Wii as the platform wasn't involved in that business all that much.

Using terms like 'hardcores' is what's bringing the whole industry down. There's no such thing as a group of people who stare longingly into the window of a video game shop who'd love to play Call of Duty 4 but are afraid it uses too many buttons so opt for Mario Kart Wii instead. What there is, is a market of people who want to play games and SEGA making cheap, shallow garbage all the time that sells does make the consumers not only look stupid but it makes the ones who would like something different and a bit more challenging leave the market all together, thus creating the cesspool we have today where every major game is a brown FPS or a 5 year old rehash with motion controls.

The reason why other markets thrive so well is they work on good faith. Take the movies, for example. Big studios like Sony fund the blockbusters, make huge returns then use that money to, not only make the next big summer hit, but fund smaller productions which are often of much better quality and more interesting but do not hit the big numbers. Unfortunately, video games doesn't have that and SEGA is living proof.

Not sure if this applies to the conversation at hand, but... I played the original Shenmue, and distinctly remember loving it dearly. But looking back with the benefit of hindsight, I can't say for certain that the game was actually fun. Can anyone relate?

I just can't visualize a tween version of myself sitting on the couch, squealing in joy as I move around boxes on a goddamned forklift every day. All I can remember about that game now are all the mundane little tasks scattered throughout Yokosuka.

And the 70-man battle, of course.

Heartbroken, everyone on Shenmue Dojo is.

So... Sega is dead now?

I mean, Sonic is dead, and that dude retired, and the only good games they have are the football manager ones, Valkyria Chronicles, Virtua Fighter and Virtua Tennis.

The thing that I don't understand is, they have the Yakuza 3 engine. They have the script. Heck they probably have the assets that would just need up-resing. Couldn't they just make it? I really don't understand why they haven't. I know it costs money, and the first two games were commercial flops but -- given the rabid fanbase it's ALWAYS going to sell to both existing fans, and subsequently the "hype" would run off on "newcomers".

In fact, more to the point -- why aren't SEGA releasing Yakuza 3 over here? All they have to do is slap subtitles on it.

I understand SEGA are making majority of their cash through dodgy Wii games these days, and I don't begrudge them that. Hell, if anyone deserves to shift units it's SEGA, because they've been shafted so much in the past. If they released 10 games in 2010 though, why couldn't 9 be dodgy Wii games and 1 be Shenmue III. Heck, they could even make Shenmue III for the Wii.

It got two chances, and failed, three if you count the Xbox port, why keep trying when they got a formula that works better (in terms of profit) with Yakuza? Maybe they will after they're done with that franchise (for a while at least).