Yu Suzuki (鈴木 裕, Suzuki Yū, born June 10 1958) is a Japanese game designer and producer who has spent his entire career with Sega Enterprises. Often referred to as Sega's answer to Shigeru Miyamoto, he has been responsible for the creation of many of Sega's most important arcade games such as Hang-On, Out Run, After Burner II, Virtua Fighter and Virtua Cop as well as the Dreamcast game Shenmue. In 2003, Suzuki became the sixth person to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame.

Career

Suzuki was born and raised in Iwate Prefecture, Japan, the older of two children to parents who were elementary school teachers. Suzuki's father was Yuzuru, and his mother, Taka, taught piano. Suzuki has one younger sister named Yuka, who became a dance teacher. Yu Suzuki's interests were wide-ranging as a child. At a young age, he was encouraged by his father to have a passionate interest in music and the arts. That interest would stay with him for the rest of his life. He also enjoyed building numerous model cars, houses, and robots with plastic blocks, as well as establishing a passion for drawing.

Before entering college, Suzuki flirted with the idea of going into education, having been influenced by his parents. After a while, he thought of becoming an illustrator and then a dentist. However, the latter dream was short-lived, as he didn't pass the required exam for dental school. Ever resourceful, Suzuki began to play the guitar, but he stated in an interview with G4TV that, "No matter how much I practised, I never got that much better."

Turning his attention back to his childhood plastic block endeavors, Yu Suzuki decided to pursue computer programming at the Okayama University of Science. He graduated from there in the early 1980s. He was also interested in music. He played guitar at Music club called "Muscat" at Okayama Ridai.

Suzuki joined Sega Enterprises in 1983 as a programmer, and in his second year he created a racing arcade game called Hang-On. After Hang-On, Suzuki released several hit titles such as Out Run and After Burner II.

In 1993, Suzuki created Virtua Fighter, a 3D computer graphics fighting game, which became enormously popular and spawned a series of sequels and spinoffs. The Virtua Fighter series was recognized by the Smithsonian Institution as an application which made great contributions to society in the field of art and entertainment. For the first time ever, a Japanese game became a part of the Smithsonian Institution's Permanent Research Collection on Information Technology Innovation, and is now being kept perpetually at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

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). The story, graphics, and the innovative system exceeded those of many previous games. Shenmue is currently the second most expensive game to be developed (being recently surpassed by Grand Theft Auto IV in which it costing roughly 100 Million USD.) with the whole project costing 70 million USD.

One of Suzuki's most notable arcade games was Ferrari F355 Challenge, a racing simulator created upon a strong partnership with Ferrari. The game itself drew attention not only from the gaming industry overall, but also from the automobile industry. Rubens Barrichello of the F1 Team Ferrari was quoted by Suzuki to "have considered to purchase one for practicing."

Yu Suzuki's interests go far beyond the world of programming, as he is also an accomplished amateur philosopher, painter, and mathematician.

Suzuki is married, and makes his home in Tokyo.

List of major works

Title	Year released	Platform	Role
Space Harrier	1985	Sega Space Harrier hardware	Producer / Director
Hang-On	1985	Sega Space Harrier hardware	Producer / Director
Out Run	1986	Sega Out Run hardware	Producer / Director
Super Hang-On	1986	Sega Space Harrier hardware	Producer
After Burner II	1987	Sega X Board	Producer / Director
Power Drift	1988	Sega Y Board	Producer / Director
Turbo Outrun	1989	Sega Out Run hardware	Producer
Virtua Racing	1992	Sega Model 1	Producer / Director
Virtua Fighter	1993	Sega Model 1	Director
Virtua Cop	1994	Sega Model 2	Producer
Virtua Fighter 2	1995	Sega Model 2	Producer / Director
Virtua Cop 2	1995	Sega Model 2	Producer
Virtua Fighter 3	1997	Sega Model 3	Producer
Virtua Fighter 3 Team Battle	1998	Sega Model 3	Producer
Ferrari F355 Challenge	1999	Sega NAOMI	Producer / Director
Shenmue	1999	Dreamcast	Producer / Director
Shenmue II	2001	Dreamcast / Xbox	Producer / Director
Propeller Arena	2001 Cancelled	Dreamcast	Producer
Virtua Fighter 4	2001	Sega NAOMI 2	Producer
Suzuki Yu - Game Works Vol. 1	2002	Dreamcast
Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution	2002	Sega NAOMI 2	Producer
Virtua Fighter 4 Final Tuned	2003	Sega NAOMI 2	Producer
OutRun 2	2003	Sega Chihiro	Producer
Psy-Phi	2005 Cancelled	Sega Lindbergh	Producer
Shenmue Online	In Development	PC	Director
Sega RaceTV	2008	Sega Lindbergh	Director

References

• System16 - The Arcade Museum
• Interview with Yu Suzuki and Will Wright, June 2002
• Yu Suzuki, Akira Nagae. Suzuki Yu - Game Works Vol. 1. 2002, ASPECT, ISBN 4-7572-0889-8
• http://shenmue.planets.gamespy.com/Yu_Suzuki.shtml

External links

• Toulien -Yu Suzuki Fan Site-
• Yu Suzuki profile on MobyGames
• Yu Suzuki at the Internet Movie Database