Yu Suzuki

Yu Suzuki  (鈴木 裕 Suzuki Yū, born June 10, 1958) is a Japanese game developer, programmer and former employee of Sega who directed the developed of many innovative arcade games including Hang On, Space Harrier, Virtua Racing, Virtua Fighter and Daytona USA and the critically claimed Shenmue  games. Suzuki has also been credited with pioneering 3D gaming. His career at Sega was so successful he is often regarded as "Sega's Shigeru Miyamoto ". He was also the head of the AM2 division for 18 years. In 2003 Yu Suzuki was inducted into Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame in September of 2011 Yu Suzuki officially left Sega to form his own company YS Net. in 2015 he made a mainstream return with an announced Kickstarter for Shenmue III at E3 2015.

Biography
Suzuki was born in the city of Kamaishi he spent some of his early years playing games with other children although he never developed a specific love for games. When studying in college Suzuki began to take programming classes, over time he began to find a passion for programming. When first entering the job market Suzuki had two criteria for companies seeking to hire him, they must allow him to program and offer at least two days off per week.

In 1983 Suzuki first became employed by Sega, His first project was Champion Boxing a game for Sega's SG-1000 home console. Sega executives were pleased with the project and promoted Suzuki to work at AM2 giving him an unused prototype of a hardware that looked similar to handlebars, they asked Suzuki to create an arcade game with the hardware. Suzuki, an avid biker thought a game where the player controlled a motorcycle would work well and began development on ''Hang-On. The Hang-On'' team were able to convert the prototype into a full cabinet that simulated the feeling of riding a motorcycle. In 1985 Hang-On was released and was a critical and commercial hit worldwide, praised for it's groundbreaking use of arcade tech and high frame rate.