At the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards, a respected game industry veteran was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award.
Yu Suzuki was born in Kamaishi, Iwate, Japan on June 10, 1958. He decided to build a career within the Japanese gaming industry, and many beloved games are a product of that decision.
Suzuki is a game designer, producer, programmer, and engineer, and his primary claim to fame was his role in overseeing Sega’s AM2 team for 18 years.
Sega AM2 is the oldest video game development team within Sega, as it was founded in 1985. The team has created many popular franchises, including Virtua Fighter, Outrun, and Daytona USA. The most recent games developed by the Sega AM2 team are Border Break, Fate/Grand Order Arcade, and Soul Reverse.
Yu Suzuki has been in the gaming industry for over 35 years and has influenced many games and hardware throughout his time. He has had a role in dozens of games as well as older Japanese gaming hardware.
The first game he had a significant role in was 1984’s Champion Boxing, as he worked as the director and designer. Suzuki even drew some of the punching animations for the game.
Since then, he has worked as a director, designer, producer, supervisor, and writer for many projects.
His games have been released on various platforms throughout history, starting with Sega SG – 1000 to PlayStation 4.
A documentary will be coming out featuring Yu Suzuki called A Gamer’s Journey: The Definitive History of Shenmue.
The documentary takes place in Japan and follows Yu Suzuki and his team as they work on Shenmue 3. It will also dive into the history of the Shenmue franchise.
Shenmue 3, which is due to release on November 19, is the first game that Yu Suzuki has worked on in since 2014’s Virtua Fighter: Fever Combo.
Suzuki also worked on the hardware development of famous Japanese gaming creations, including Sega Model 1,2, and 3, and the Dreamcast.
He accepted the Lifetime Achievement at the Bloomsburg Big Top in London during the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards.
During Suzuki’s acceptance speech, he reminded the audience how long he has been around the gaming industry:
“This is the 37th Golden Joystick Awards, but it just so happens this is my 37th year since I first entered into the world of game making. I couldn’t be happier to be happier to be here and be given such an award.”
Yu Suzuki joins the likes of Kevin Levine, Hideo Kojima, and Sid Meier as a Golden Joystick Lifetime Achievement recipient.
Suzuki has also been inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame and is rated number nine on IGN’s top 100 Game Creators of All-Time list.
