Yu Suzuki

Yu Suzuki (鈴木裕), AM2's star developer, is one of the most highly-regarded visionaries in the industry. He joined Sega in 1983 as a programmer and producer, and two years later he created Hang-On, the first simulation arcade game. Hang-On was the first arcade racing game to feature a fully interactive cabinet, with the player sitting on and controlling a replica motorcycle, introducing and popularizing motion controls in arcades.

Suzuki has always tried to push the limits of arcade hardware. In the mid-80s, he introduced Sega's "Super Scaler" arcade technology, which used sprite scaling and rotation to produce early textured three-dimensional graphics, with games like Hang-On, OutRun, Space Harrier, After Burner and Power Drift. He was the first to develop a title using the cutting-edge Sega Model 1 arcade board, which he helped develop. With the Model 1, Suzuki began his first foray into the world of polygons, and the result was Virtua Racing. This F1 racing simulator was completely rendered in 3D, and allowed players to experience the action from four different camera angles. Other contributions during this time range from analog fight-stick controls (Space Harrier) to new genres such as street racing (OutRun) and kart racing (Power Drift).

Suzuki's next Model 1 masterpiece was the acclaimed Virtua Fighter in 1993. It was the very first 3D fighting game, and featured what is considered to be one of the deepest fighting engines ever. Virtua Fighter’s impact was such that it is housed in the Smithsonian Institution's Permanent Research Collection on Information Technology Innovation. Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter are credited for popularizing 3D polygon graphics, with their dynamic camera systems, polygonal human characters and physics engines. He continued to advance polygonal 3D graphics and gameplay, developing the Sega Model 2 hardware which introduced mass-produced texture-mapping with filtering, directing Virtua Fighter 2 which introduced texture-mapped characters and motion-capture animation, and producing titles such as Daytona USA and Virtua Cop, the first 3D light-gun shooter.

In 1999, Yu Suzuki released Shenmue, the first major original title he directed for a home console. Five years in the making, Shenmue on the Dreamcast was a major step forward for 3D open world gameplay. It featured a sweeping story, multiple gameplay elements, open-world 3D environments, quick-time events, hundreds of voiced characters with their own daily routines, a real-time weather system, and an unprecedented level of detail. Shenmue marked the start of a new genre, dubbed by Suzuki as FREE, or Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment. The story, graphics, environment, and the innovative system, exceeded those of many previous games. Shenmue was the most expensive game to be developed, with the whole project costing 47-70 million USD (until it was surpassed by Grand Theft Auto IV, which cost roughly 100 Million USD). The same year, he also created the racing simulation F355 Challenge. During the early-mid-2000s, he developed several more arcade hits such as Virtua Fighter 4 and OutRun 2 while working on experimental titles such as the cancelled touchscreen fighting game Psy-Phi.

In 2003, Suzuki became the sixth person to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame. IGN listed him at #9 in their Top 100 Game Creators of All Time list.^[1] On April 1, 2009, Suzuki retired from Sega. Since then he now runs his own game company, YS NET Inc. (established November 11, 2008), but still retains a good relationship with Sega. In 2014, The List named him as one of the top ten game designers of all time, for "striving towards realistic 3D gaming".^[2]

Overview

Cited as one of the most influential game designers, he is often considered Sega's answer to Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto. Suzuki led the development for a number of important games at Sega AM2, revolutionizing the video game industry in several ways. 1UP summarized his three most influential achievements as: firstly, starting the trend of "Taikan" games (motion-controlled arcade cabinet games) in the mid-1980s; secondly, the game industry's shift from 2D to 3D during the 1980s to 1990s; and thirdly, Shenmue's influence on modern games in the 2000s. [1]

Regarding his game design philosophy, Suzuki stated that the "difference between Miyamoto-san and I is that he takes the same game and takes it deeper and deeper, like with the Mario series," while "I like to work on different games and concepts. I don't like doing the same thing. The same goes for the hardware. I like to change the hardware I work with.^[3] Suzuki mostly programmed his games in more difficult assembly language, as opposed to the less difficult C language. According to Suzuki, "C was really slow back then. The fastest program that I used was 200 times faster than C." [2]

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 an interest in music and the arts on which it would end up staying with him for the rest of his life. He also enjoyed building numerous model cars, wooden miniature houses, and robots made of plastic blocks, as well as 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 entry 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 practiced, I never got that much better."

Seeing the similarities between the plastic blocks he played with as a child and the architecture of electronic design, 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.

Sega (1983–2003)

Suzuki joined Sega Enterprises in 1983 as a programmer. In his first year, he created a 2D boxing arcade game called Champion Boxing, which he designed and coded (Retro Gamer, №145, p22). It was later ported to Sega's first home game console, the SG-1000, and then ported to the arcades in 1984. He helped develop it along with Rieko Kodama.

Super Scaler 3D and Motion Controls (1985–1990)

Under the mantle of Sega's development studio AM2, Suzuki began working on an original arcade game which would prove to be the big stepping-off point of his career. "To develop this game," Suzuki told G4TV, "I rode on motorcycles a lot. When we came up with the prototype (for the arcades), I would ride on that prototype bike for hours and hours every day." His and AM2's efforts culminated into the game Hang-On, released in 1985. His first breakthrough, Hang-On was a success as it broke new ground in arcade technology. It did not feature any traditional controls, as the movement of the on-screen avatar was dictated by the movements the player made with their body on the motorcycle cabinet. This began the "Taikan" trend, the use of motion-controlled hydraulic arcade cabinets in many arcade games of the late 1980s, two decades before motion controls became popular on video game console. [3] Suzuki's intention behind the motion controls was to make arcade games more accessible to casual users. This new emphasis on a motion-controlled experience revitalized the arcade game industry in the late 1980s, and would be what kept it alive decades later with dancing games like Konami's Bemani franchise. In turn, this laid the foundations for console gaming's much later motion control boom, led by Nintendo's Wii and then Microsoft's Xbox Kinect.

Running on the Sega Hang-On hardware, Hang-On was also the first of Sega's "Super Scaler" arcade system boards that allowed three-dimensional sprite-scaling at high frame rates.^[4] The three-dimensional sprite/tile scaling was handled in a similar manner to textures in later texture-mapped polygonal 3D games of the 1990s.^[5] Suzuki stated that his "designs were always 3D from the beginning. All the calculations in the system were 3D, even from Hang-On. I calculated the position, scale, and zoom rate in 3D and converted it backwards to 2D. So I was always thinking in 3D." [4] His 16-bit, three-dimensional, "Super Scaler" sprite-scaling graphics engine became the basis for the pseudo-3D sprite-scaling methods later developed for home systems, including the Neo Geo's sprite-scaling techniques, the SNES console's Mode 7, and the ray casting method used by various computer FPS games like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. Hang-On's chiptune music was also notable for introducing digitized drum sounds.

Suzuki and AM2 soon followed with the three-dimensional third-person shooter game Space Harrier later that year, running on the Sega Space Harrier hardware. The game introduced a true analog flight stick for movement,^[6] with the ability to register movement in any direction as well as measure the degree of push, which could move the player character at different speeds depending on how far the stick is pushed in a certain direction.^[7] It also featured a basic homing missile gameplay mechanic, and a full-motion cockpit cabinet (Retro Gamer, №145, p22); its cockpit-shaped arcade cabinet moved in the direction the player moved the joystick. The game's success established Suzuki as the leading arcade game designer at the time.^[6]

Showing his interest in Ferraris, Suzuki created the driving simulator Out Run, which was released in 1986. Although it didn't officially feature a Ferrari, the player controlled a car that looked almost exactly like one. Out Run offered players a wide variety of driving paths and routes to complete the game, adding elements of nonlinear gameplay and increasing replay value. It also introduced third-person road gradients, adding more depth to racing gameplay. It also featured a radio with three songs to choose from as players drove through the wide variety of landscapes. At the Golden Joystick Awards, Out Run was awarded the Game of the Year award. [5]

Suzuki's later hits included the jet fighting After Burner series in the late 1980s. After Burner (1987) was a rail shooter that featured a lock-on system, which was adopted by later rail shooters such as Sega's Panzer Dragoon and Rez (Retro Gamer, №145, p28). It also introduced moving cockpit cabinets with true analog flight-stick controls (moving in all directions and measuring the degree of push, a precursor to the analog thumbsticks of the N64 and later consoles). After Burner, with its Sega X Board hardware, also introduced the sprite-rotation graphical technique. The space flight sim Galaxy Force (1988) later introduced a 335-degree rotating cockpit cabinet.

He followed up with the roller-coaster-like, drift-based, kart racer, Power Drift, in 1988. Improving on the "Super Scaler" technology and road scrolling effects of Hang-On and Out Run, Power Drift created "all of its track layouts with flat bitmaps" to simulate a "wholly 3D space using strictly 2D technology.".^[8] It also created the kart racer genre, setting the template for later popular kart racers like Mario Kart.

In 1990, Suzuki brought out a spiritual sequel to After Burner called G-LOC, which featured a gyroscope-like cabinet that rotated full 360 degrees to give players the realistic illusion of flying a fighter jet. The graphics also featured advanced sprite/texture scaling & rotation, anticipating the look of early 3D texture-mapping.

3D Polygon Revolution (1990–1996)

Suzuki had been interested in 3D technology since his days in college. While Space Harrier and Out Run had three-dimensional graphics, using sprites as if they were textures, they could not fully utilize the capabilities of 3D. In the early 1990s, he kick-started the 3D polygon revolution with the Virtua games, which began on the Sega Model series of arcade systems. Suzuki and AM2 were involved with the development of the Sega Model 1 arcade system. When they began developing the Model 1 development board, a piece of hardware capable of generating 3D polygonal graphics, they began developing games for it. It debuted with the 3D Formula 1 racer Virtua Racing, which Suzuki began developing in 1991. In 1992, Sega released Virtua Racing, which was the most realistic-looking arcade game on the market at that time. GameSpot listed it as one of the 15 most influential video games of all time, commenting that "It wasn't the first fully polygonal game on the market ... but along with Virtua Fighter, Sega's 1993 release on the same hardware, it introduced the concept of polygonal graphics to the masses."^[9] It introduced a dynamic 3D camera system, which can be changed between multiple angles/perspectives, and can pan and rotate around the environment during replays. It was also the first game to render humans (NPCs such as the driving teams and spectators) with polygons in a fully 3D environment. It popularized polygonal 3D gaming, and set the template for 3D arcade racers.

In 1993, Suzuki created Virtua Fighter, the first 3D fighting game, which became enormously popular and spawned a series of sequels and spinoffs. It introduced relatively detailed, recognizably human, 3D player characters, and a gameplay format that would become the template for 3D fighting games, in much the same way Street Fighter II was for 2D fighters. It inspired many 3D fighting games such as the Tekken and Soul Calibur series.^[10] Some of the Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) staff involved in the creation of the original PlayStation console credit Virtua Fighter as inspiration for the PlayStation's 3D graphics hardware. According to SCE's former producer Ryoji Akagawa and chairman Shigeo Maruyama, the PlayStation was originally being considered as 2D focused hardware, and it wasn't until the success of Virtua Fighter in the arcades that they decided to design the PlayStation as a 3D focused hardware.^[11] Next Generation, in 1995, stated Virtua Fighter "epitomizes Suzuki's skill of finding the perfect blend of state-of-the-art technology with solid gameplay".^[12] Virtua Fighter was a breakthrough for 3D gaming, as the first game to implement 3D polygonal human characters in a useful way, with recognizable graphical details (such as the eyes, ears, nose and fingers), and with animations and reactions based on an early physics engine.

Yu Suzuki continued making significant advances in 3D gaming. He led the development of the Sega Model 2 arcade hardware. In 1993, he debuted the Sega Model 2 with Daytona USA, which featured the use of texture mapping and introduced texture filtering, producing graphics that were, according to IGN, "light-years ahead of anything anyone had seen."^[13]

In 1994, he created Virtua Fighter 2, which introduced filtered, texture-mapped characters, and motion capature animation technology. Suzuki noted that the game's texture-mapping technology was limited to the military and cost millions, which his AM2 team acquired and used to create a much cheaper affordable graphics chip for the Model 2 that could be mass-produced, making mass-produced texture-mapping possible for the game industry. Virtua Fighter 2 was also known for its character animations, which were produced using motion capture technology that had previously never been used by the game industry.^[14] The same year, he created Virtua Cop, which revolutionized the light-gun shooter genre with a new 3D first-person rail shooter format, including new mechanics like positional body targeting and headshots, revitalizing the genre in the arcades. It also broke new ground by popularizing the use of 3D graphics in shooter games.^[15] It inspired 3D light gun shooters such as Time Crisis and The House of the Dead as well as 3D first-person shooters such as GoldenEye 007,^[16] which in turn laid the foundations for console FPS games.

Suzuki continued making advances in 3D gaming with more arcade hits. The Model 2 fighting game Fighting Vipers (1995) introduced destructible environments and destructible clothing. Suzuki also oversaw most of the home console conversions of AM2's arcade games during this time.

He was then involved with the development of the Sega Model 3 arcade hardware. The fighting sequel Virtua Fighter 3 (1996) featured a groundbreaking graphics engine, which introduced advances like specular shading, T&L lighting, cloth physics, particle effects, inverse kinematics, facial animation, eye movement, and multi-sample anti-aliasing.

The Virtua Fighter series was recognized by the Smithsonian Institution, [6] as an application which made great contributions to society in the field of art and entertainment.

Shenmue and Open World Gaming (1996–2001)

In 1995, Suzuki began work on his first major original console project, The Old Man and The Peach Tree, which was intended to be the first 3D, third-person, open-world game, a role-playing game set in China, for the Sega Saturn. By 1996, this eventually project had evolved into Virtua Fighter RPG, a cinematic tech demo of which was produced for the Saturn. This project then moved to the Dreamcast and eventually developed into his magnum opus, Shenmue, a cinematic, third-person, open-world adventure game. It 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). With the game's 1998 demo, he described the game's open-world "FREE" gameplay, based on the interactivity and freedom he wanted to give to the player. Suzuki intended to achieve this by simulating aspects of real life through the game, such as the day and night system, real-time variable weather effects (unheard of at the time), fully-voiced non-player characters with their own daily schedules, quick-time events, and various other interactive elements such as vending machines, mini-games at arcades, and convenience stores. Shenmue was the most expensive game to be developed until Grand Theft Auto IV in 2008, with the whole project costing $70 million USD,^[17] equivalent to $93 million USD in 2011.^[18]

Suzuki's Shenmue released for the Dreamcast in 1999, Shenmue was a major step forward for 3D open world, nonlinear gameplay, touted as offering an unparalleled level of player freedom, giving them full reign to explore an expansive sandbox city with its own day-night cycles, changing weather, and fully voiced non-player characters going about their daily routines. It had unparalleled realism for its time, high production values and cinematics rendered in-engine, and introduced true 3D urban open-world sandbox gameplay, with the most believable game world seen at the time. The game's large interactive environments, level of detail and the scope of its urban sandbox exploration has been compared to later sandbox games like Grand Theft Auto III and its sequels, Sega's own Yakuza series, Fallout 3, and Deadly Premonition.^[1]^[19]^[20]^[21] The game also revived and modernized the Quick Time Event mechanic, and coined a name for it, "QTE". The mechanic has since appeared in many later titles, including popular action games such as Resident Evil 4, 'God of War, Tomb Raider: Legend, Heavenly Sword, and Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy,^[22] as well as the likes of Uncharted (2007), Heavy Rain (2010), and The Last of Us (2013). Shenmue also influenced later Final Fantasy games.

Despite earning critical acclaim, Shenmue was unable to recoup its high budget. The commercial failure of Shenmue and its even larger sequel Shenmue II (2001), led to the cancellation of Shenmue III and eventually led to Suzuki slowly fading away from the limelight of the video game industry.

Suzuki's arcade game Ferrari F355 Challenge, also released in 1999, was a racing simulator created upon a strong partnership with Ferrari. The game was considered the most accurate racing simulation of the Ferrari F355 possible up until that time. Rubens Barrichello of the F1 Team Ferrari was quoted by Suzuki to "have considered to purchase one for practicing."^[10]^[23]

Post-Shenmue Era (2001–2004)

After the commercial failure of the Shenmue games, Suzuki returned to developing arcade games. He directed Virtua Fighter 4, which released in 2001. In 2003, Yu Suzuki, along with Hiroshi Kataoka, produced sequels for OutRun and Virtua Cop, entitled OutRun 2 and Virtua Cop 3, respectively. As sequels to classics, these games were well-received. He also worked on innovative projects that were eventually pulled. The Dreamcast game Propeller Arena was a multiplayer deathmatch based flight sim due for release in September 2001, but was cancelled following the 9/11 attacks. Suzuki left AM2 to form a new Studio eventually named DigitalRex in 2004.

Digital Rex (2004–2010)

At DigitalRex, Yu Suzuki worked on 4 games: Psy-Phi, Shenmue Online, Sega Race TV, and an unannounced fantasy sports game. Shenmue Online, which was a title in the MMO genre, along with the sports game, were cancelled during development, with Shenmue Online reportedly cancelled in 2007. PsyPhi, the first touch-controlled arcade fighting game, was initially delayed due to development shifting from Sega Chihiro to Sega Lindbergh arcade boards.^[24] The game was successfully completed, and after some location testing in 2005, Sega eventually pulled Psy-Phi from arcades and never gave it a wide release. It was never shipped to arcades because it performed poorly at location testing.^[25] One of the biggest problems with the game the developers couldn't get around was that players' fingers heated up too much from the friction of moving over the screen, and the game just became painful to play.^[26]

The goal of his new studio was to make Shenmue Online to penetrate the rising Asian MMO RPG markets.^[27] After numerous problems in development Shenmue Online was quietly cancelled.^[28] The development of Shenmue Online cost Sega and JCEntertainment almost $26 Million dollars ^[29]^[30]

After 4 years away from AM2 Yu Suzuki released his first game an arcade racing game titled Sega Race TV released under the studio name AM plus. The game was given a limited release and did not do well commercially. After the release of the game, Suzuki resumed non-executive work as an adviser for AM2.

YS.Net (2010–Present)

In 2010, it was rumored that Yu Suzuki would be appearing at E3, and revealing a game for the PlayStation 3 incorporating the new PlayStation Move motion control technology. The game was rumored to be a reworked Psy-Phi.^[31]^[32] Although this was proven as a hoax as Suzuki was not in attendance at E3 and no updates are available on the cancelled Psy-Phi.

Yu Suzuki's actual main stream return took place in fall of 2010, with a new game in the Shenmue Series, titled Shenmue City, was being developed by Sunsoft and YS Net (Yu Suzuki's new studio) for Yahoo Games.^[33]^[34]

On June 2014, Yu Suzuki received a "Legend Award" in Barcelona, Spain during Gamelab Barcelona 2014.^[35]

In June 2015, he launched a Kickstarter campaign for Shenmue III, which was successfully funded within eight hours, setting a crowdfunding record. It is set to be released in December 2017.

Production History

1980s

Champion Boxing (SG-1000) (1984) — Programmer, Director, Designer, Producer, Coder
Champion Pro Wrestling (SG-1000) (1985) — Director, Producer
Hang-On (Arcade Version) (1985) — Director, Designer, Producer
Space Harrier (Arcade Version) (1985) — Director, Designer, Producer, Special Thanks
Hang-On (Master System Version) (1985) — Director
OutRun (Arcade Version) (1986) — Director, Designer, Producer
Super Hang-On (Arcade Version) (1986) — Producer
Enduro Racer (Arcade) (1986) — Director, Producer
Space Harrier (Master System Version) (1986) — Special Thanks (as Yu)
After Burner (Arcade Version) (1987) — Director, Designer, Producer
After Burner II (Arcade Version) (1987) — Director, Designer, Producer
Power Drift (Arcade Version) (1988) — Director, Designer, Producer
Dynamite Dux (Arcade Version) (1988) — Producer
Turbo Outrun (Arcade Version) (1989) — Producer, Special Thanks (as Yu)

1990s

G-LOC: Air Battle (Arcade Version) (1990) — Director, Designer, Producer
GP Rider (Arcade Version) (1990) — Producer
Strike Fighter (After Burner III) (Arcade Version) (1991) — Designer, Producer
Rent-A-Hero (Mega Drive Version) (1991) — Producer
F1 Exhaust Note (Arcade) (1991) — Producer
Soreike Kokology (Arcade) (1991) — Producer
Sword of Vermilion (Mega Drive) (1991) — Designer, Special Thanks
Virtua Racing (Arcade Version) (1992) — Director, Chief Programmer, Producer
GP Rider (Game Gear Version) (1993) — Producer
F1 Super Lap (Arcade) (1993) — Producer
Virtua Fighter (Arcade Version) (1993) — Director, Producer, Special Thanks
Virtua Formula (Arcade) (1993) — Producer
Burning Rival (Arcade) (1993) — Producer
Soreike Kokology 2 (Arcade) (1993) — Producer
Daytona USA (Arcade Version) (1993) — Producer
Space Harrier (Sega 32X Version) (1994) — Designer
Virtua Fighter (Saturn Version) (1994) — Producer
Virtua Cop (Arcade Version) (1994) — Producer, Supervisor, Designer
Virtua Fighter 2 (Arcade Version) (1994) — Director, Producer, Supervisor
Desert Tank (Arcade) (1994) — Producer
After Burner (Sega 32X Version) (1995) — Designer
Daytona USA (Saturn Version) (1995) — Special Thanks
Virtua Cop (Saturn Version) (1995) — Supervisor, Creator
Virtua Fighter (32X Version) (1995) — Special Thanks
Virtua Fighter Remix (Arcade & Saturn Versions) (1995) — Producer
Virtua Fighter 2 (Saturn Version) (1995) — Producer
Virtua Striker (Arcade) (1995) — Producer
Virtua Cop 2 (Arcade Version) (1995) — Producer, Supervisor
Fighting Vipers (Arcade Version) (1995) — Producer
Virtua Fighter 2 (Mega Drive Version) (1996) — Supervisor
Virtua Cop 2 (Saturn Version) (1996) — Producer, Supervisor, Creator
Fighting Vipers (Saturn Version) (1996) — Producer
Sonic the Fighters (Arcade) (1996) — Producer
Virtua Fighter 3 (Arcade) (1996) — Director, Producer
Virtua Fighter Kids (Arcade Version) (1996) — Producer
Virtua Fighter Kids (Saturn Version) (1996) — Creator, Producer, Special Thanks
Fighters Megamix (Saturn) (1996) — Producer
Scud Race (Arcade) (1996) — Producer
Virtua Cop (PC Version) (1997) — Supervisor
Virtua Fighter 2 (PC Version) (1997) — Supervisor
Virtua Fighter 3: Team Battle (Arcade Version) (1997) — Director, Producer
Virtua Striker 2 (Arcade) (1997) — Producer
Digital Dance Mix Vol.1 Namie Amuro (Saturn) (1997) — Producer
Zen Nihon Pro Wres Featuring Virtua (Saturn) (1997) — Producer
Virtua Cop 2 (PC Version) (1997) — Supervisor
Virtua Cop 1-2 Pack (Saturn) (1998) — Creator
Virtua Fighter 3: Team Battle (Dreamcast Version) (1998) — Director, Producer, Creator
Fighting Vipers 2 (Arcade Version) (1998) — Producer
Virtua Striker 2 Version '98 (Arcade) (1998) — Producer
Daytona USA 2 (Arcade) (1998) — Producer
Daytona USA 2: Power Edition (Arcade) (1998) — Producer
Ferrari F355 Challenge (Arcade Version) (1999) — Director, Producer
D-2 (Dreamcast) (1999) — Special Thanks
What's Shenmue (Dreamcast) (1999) — Director, Producer
Shenmue (Dreamcast) (1999) — Story, Director, Writer, Producer, Executive Producer (Sega Enterprises Ltd.) (Shenmue (Orchestra Version) OST)
Outtrigger (Arcade Version) (1999) — Producer
Eighteen Wheeler: American Pro Trucker (Arcade Version) (1999) — Producer

2000s

Virtua Cop 2 (Dreamcast Version) (2000) — Producer, Supervisor
Ferrari F355 Challenge (Dreamcast Version) (2000) — Director, Producer
Eighteen Wheeler: American Pro Trucker (Dreamcast Version) (2000) — Special Thanks
Yu Suzuki Game Works Vol. 1 (Dreamcast) (2001) — Designer, Director, Producer
Fighting Vipers 2 (Dreamcast Version) (2001) — Producer
F355 Challenge 2 (Arcade) (2001) — Director
Shenmue II (Dreamcast Version) (2001) — Story, Director, Writer, Producer
Propeller Arena: Aviation Battle Championship (Dreamcast) (2001; unreleased) — Producer
Virtua Fighter 4 (Arcade Version) (2001) — Director, Producer, Executive Producer, Executive Director
Virtua Fighter 4 (PS2 Version) (2002) — Director, Executive Director, Producer
Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution (Arcade Version) (2002) — Producer, Director, Executive Director
Virtua Cop: Elite Edition (PS2) (2002) — Producer, Creator, Designer, Supervisor
Ferrari F355 Challenge (PS2 Version) (2002) — Producer
Shenmue II (Xbox Version) (2002) — Executive Producer (Xbox Version), Director (Tie‑up With), Producer (Tie‑up With)
Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution (PS2 Version) (2003) — Executive Director
Devastation (PC) (2003) — Special Thanks
Virtua Cop 3 (Arcade) (2003) — Executive Producer, Executive Director
OutRun 2 (Arcade Version) (2003) — Producer, Executive Producer
Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 4: Space Harrier (PS2) (2003) — Executive Supervisor
Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 8: Virtua Racing -FlatOut- (PS2) (2004) — Executive Supervisor
Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 10: After Burner II (PS2) (2004) — Executive Supervisor
Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 13: OutRun (PS2) (2004) — Executive Supervisor
Virtua Fighter 4: Final Tuned (Arcade) (2004) — Producer
Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 19: Fighting Vipers (PS2) (2005) — Producer
Pure Breed (cancelled) — Concept
Psy-Phi (Arcade) (2005) — Director, Producer, Concept
Shenmue Online (PC) (2007) — Director, Producer
Sega Race TV (Arcade) (2008) — Director, Producer, Executive Producer

2010s

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (PS3/360/Wii/DS/PC/iOS/Arcade) (2010) — Creative Officer (Sega Japan), Special Thanks
Shenmue City (Mobage) (2010) — Director
Virtua Fighter: Cool Champ (iPhone) (2011) — Director
Shooting Wars (iPhone) (2012) — Director
Bullet Pirates (iPhone & Android Versions) (2013) — Director
Virtua Fighter: Fever Combo (iPhone & Android Versions) (2014) — Director
Shenmue III (PS4 & PC Versions) (2017) — Director & Producer