"Yu Suzuki Becomes Advisor to Premium Agency"

[Yama]

"Shenmue and Virtua Fighter creator Yu Suzuki has taken on an advisory role at Premium Agency, a production house that works in a variety of digital contents fields, including game and animation development.

Suzuki will take an overall producer role as he helps strengthen the firm's game development on next generation game machines and smart phones."

Source: http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/0 ... um_agency/

Thanks to Henry Spencer for the tip!

[MiTT3NZ]

So does he no longer work for SEGA, or is he just someone this company runs to and pesters for his opinion on something?

[*Kenshin Himura*]

Interesting

[Peter]

Need more info on this to establish wether or not this is good, bad, or irrelevant for the future of Shenmue.

[*Kenshin Himura*]

Need more info on this to establish wether or not this is good, bad, or irrelevant for the future of Shenmue.

Agreed, or maybe its good news because since he is an advisor he can push Shenmue out by his own blessing with no hassle?

[Peter]

Considering the terminology in the positions description ('digital download content' & 'smartphones') it looks as if Suzuki is paving the way expand Shenmue Gai. Also not to get anyone excited, but the CEO was the motion director for Shenmue, and also worked on Shenmue 2x. Also some of the old Shenmue staff are at Premium Agency now

[*Kenshin Himura*]

I thought it said Next gen Machines as well?

[Peter]

oh they have done games for the PS3, like Biohazard (surprised Yama didnt mention that) and MGS4. and also the PSP

[Myles]

Yeah just what Peter said. I could see this as a potential good thing if SEGA does their typical IP dump, what better company to give it to than the one where Yu and Co are.

[Peter]

To me, it sounds like The Blues Brothers, with Suzuki running about shouting, "Im putting the band back together!"

[Yama]

I didn't even want to start a riot by posting my thoughts in the OP. But after the "I think Sega will let me make it" comment, now this? Not a good sign, not a good sign at all...

[Segata Sanshiro Jr.]

Why not?

He still works at Sega lol unless he says "I'm leaving Sega" it means he's still there. Its also possible they want this company to assist in development or porting of shenmue games its happened before like when Sora was created. Originally people threw a fit because they thought Sakurai wasen't at Nintendo and would no longer work on Nintendo games, but in the end we got Smash bros Brawl and a new kid icarus. So its still too early to tell

[Bluecast]

So he finally left sega huh. Welp Shenmue is dead.

[darksniper]

I don't know whether to look at this optimistically or in a negative/realistic light. Hopefully what this means is that he's setting up a team of people to work on some major projects(Shenmue III). Considering that it consists of ex-Shenmue designers, it could mean something much greater.

However, I think this might just mean the great Yu-Suzuki has been dumped off to the Kinect wasteland along with Rare.

I didn't even want to start a riot by posting my thoughts in the OP. But after the "I think Sega will let me make it" comment, now this? Not a good sign, not a good sign at all...

I don't hang on to one man's words, but the strength of that comment still leads me to believe that there are/was talks of bringing Shenmue back into the forefront. After 8-10 years of waiting and constant denials from Sega and Suzuki himself, he wouldn't say that just to get fans excited. There's some weight to his "Sega will let me make it comment". I wish someone would confront Sega about Suzuki's quote, because there's some bit of truth to this that we don't know yet.

[Yama]

Why not?

It in no way strengthens the development of Shenmue. If the series were in fact the focal point of Sega at the moment, trust me, this wouldn't be the time for changes and most of all branching out. Hope I'm wrong for Shenmue's sake.

I don't know whether to look at this optimistically or in a negative/realistic light. Hopefully what this means is that he's setting up a team of people to work on some major projects(Shenmue III). Considering that it consists of ex-Shenmue designers, it could mean something much greater.

However, I think this might just mean the great Yu-Suzuki has been dumped off to the Kinect wasteland along with Rare.

I didn't even want to start a riot by posting my thoughts in the OP. But after the "I think Sega will let me make it" comment, now this? Not a good sign, not a good sign at all...

I don't hang on to one man's words, but the strength of that comment still leads me to believe that there are/was talks of bringing Shenmue back into the forefront. After 8-10 years of waiting and constant denials from Sega and Suzuki himself, he wouldn't say that just to get fans excited. There's some weight to his "Sega will let me make it comment". I wish someone would confront Sega about Suzuki's quote, because there's some bit of truth to this that we don't know yet.

Now would be the time. This generation has been far from exhilarating and giving CPR to old series has been one thing that has indeed been working. Shenmue deserves it more than any other.