Sega Rally, Rez Creator To Leave Sega

Thanks to IGN PS2 for their article revealing that Sega studio director Tetsuya Mizuguchi will be leaving the company. According to the piece: "The end of Mizuguchi's tenure at Sega, which brought to the world such classics as Sega Rally, Space Channel 5 and Rez, will apparently take place on the 10th of this month", and this news comes after Mizuguchi's studio, UGA, are "to merge with fellow internal development studio Sonic Team" as part of Sega's major development re-organization that also saw other significant changes, including the Hitmaker and Sega Rosso studios merging and fellow Sega auteur Yu Suzuki getting his own studio, Digitalrex.

Rez: Better known as...

[FatalTourist]

The vibrator game [gamegirladvance.com].

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Pants

[DeadScreenSky]

Agreed. I am very curious as to who he will be working with from now on, though, since it sounds like some other company is already chosen. Not very many truly innovative companies working in the Japanese gaming industry nowadays, especially compared to Sega (minus Sonic Team).

Figures

[Anonymous Coward]

Sega really needs to ditch the artsy-fartsy types and just concentrate on making games that people will actually buy. After Shenmue, Yu Suzuki had better get to work or he'll be next.

Is at an ego thing?

[Gizzmonic]

When Mizuguchi's Space Channel 5 arrived in the US, it received an enormous advertising push, despite being easy, boring, and utterly without replay value. More worthy titles like Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi got little or no advertising.

The same thing happened when Shenmue came out. An "old master" producer at SEGA got a huge advertising campaign for his experimental pet project over more marketable (and in most cases, far better) games.

I'm wondering if this shakeup is such a bad thing-
SEGA's "old mast

Re:Is at an ego thing?

[HalfFlat]

Being in Australia, there was no promotion at all for anything dreamcast related, so it was all a clean slate here ... (I blame Ozisoft mainly.)

It seems to me that all the problems you identify with Space Channel 5 were addressed in the sequel. The game play is longer, it's harder, it's more interesting (though I didn't think the first one was actually boring.) There is quite a bit of replay value. All while keeping the same basic structure of the game.

I wonder if it is simply a case of learning from expe

Rez

[Lord_Dweomer]

For those of you who looked up a review of Rez.....and can't figure out why its so popular on Slashdot....well.......um.....read this [gamegirladvance.com].

Apparently its not just a game for guys ;)

Re:Rez

[Lord_Dweomer]

Listen troll, first off, I'm 20, second, I browse at +3, and when I posted early on, I did not see a single link to it. Not to mention the fact that I was trying to inform people who may not get why Rez was mentioned. In fact, the SOLE reason Rez got mentioned is because of that damn vibrator and the article, so my comment was extremely relevant. Guess we know who the REAL 12 year old is.

Re:You sure don't act like it...

[Lord_Dweomer]

" I am not that AC and Correct me if I am wrong, but you say the only reason that Rez is mentioned is because of the vibrator? Maybe if you got your mind out of the gutter and stopped showing your immaturity, you might realize that people could be mentioning it because it is a good game."

Jesus Christ! What's with everybody assuming you have to be a pervert to bring up a sexual topic. I pointed out the vibrator because that is the point of relevancy with Rez that makes it worth mentioning in a story about

Rez rules.

[BitwizeGHC]

I hope wherever he goes, Mr. Mizuguchi never forgets the enormous gaming triumph that is Rez (orgasms or no) and upholds the tradition this amazing game established. I'm still holding out hope for a sequel, much like what happened when the Xeno series switched studios. But even if that doesn't happen, there's always Unity, the Rez-like game for the Cube that Jeff Minter and Peter Molyneux have in the works.

Plaything

[Tsuzuki]

Erg, gotta love how the people who have never played Rez are the ones who incessantly link to the GGA article... it's like concentrating on the shit monster in Conker's Bad Fur Day.

On topic, there's a gaming symposium [dlux.org.au] being held in Sydney this weekend for those who are interested in games as art... the accompanying exhibition will include some of Mizuguchi's work on Rez.