(born March 16, 1970) is a Japanese

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

director, producer, designer and screenwriter. Since 2008, Iizuka has been the vice president of product development for the ''

Sonic the Hedgehog is a Japanese video game series and media franchise created by Sega. The franchise follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battles the evil Doctor Eggman, a mad scientist. The main ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' games are platformers mo ...

'' series at

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

, as well as the head of

Sonic Team is a video game developer owned by the Japanese video game company Sega as part of its Sega CS Research and Development No. 2 division. Sonic Team is best known for the long-running '' Sonic the Hedgehog'' series and games such as '' Nights ...

although he has been working on games in the ''Sonic'' series since 1994.

Early career

His first collaboration with

involved working with

Sega Technical Institute Sega Technical Institute (STI) was an American video game developer owned by Sega. Founded by the Atari veteran Mark Cerny in 1990, STI sought to combine elite Japanese developers, including the Sonic Team programmer Yuji Naka and his team, wit ...

on ''

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a 1994 platform game developed and published by Sega for the Genesis. Like previous ''Sonic'' games, players traverse side-scrolling levels while collecting rings and defeating enemies. They control Sonic and Tails, who attempt to retrieve ...

'' as a designer. Later, he helped supervise

Traveller's Tales Traveller's Tales is a British video game developer and a subsidiary of TT Games. Traveller's Tales was founded in 1989 by Jon Burton and Andy Ingram. Initially a small company focused on its own content, it grew in profile through developing ...

with the development of ''

Sonic R is a 1997 racing game developed by Traveller's Tales and Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Sega Saturn. It is the third racing game in the '' Sonic the Hedgehog'' series, and the first to feature 3D computer graphics. The player race ...

''. He was also the lead designer for '' Nights into Dreams'', and director for ''

Sonic Adventure is a 1998 platform game for Sega's Dreamcast and the first main '' Sonic the Hedgehog'' game to feature 3D gameplay. It follows Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, Amy Rose, Big the Cat, and E-102 Gamma in their ...

''.

Sega

In 1999, he and a small part of Sonic Team moved to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

to establish Sonic Team USA (later renamed

Sega Studio USA is a video game developer owned by the Japanese video game company Sega as part of its Sega CS Research and Development No. 2 division. Sonic Team is best known for the long-running ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series and games such as '' Nights int ...

), in order to gain feedback from the western market. Over in the U.S. his team worked on the international release of ''

''. Afterward, his team started to develop their own games, where he was the director and lead designer for ''

Sonic Adventure 2 is a platform video game developed by Sonic Team USA and published by Sega. It was the final ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' game for the Dreamcast after Sega left the home console market. It features two Conflict between good and evil, good-vs-evil stor ...

'', ''

Sonic Heroes is a 2003 3D platform game developed by Sonic Team USA and published by Sega as part of the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series. The player races a team of series characters through levels to amass rings, defeat robots, and collect the seven Cha ...

'', ''

Shadow the Hedgehog is a fictional character appearing in Sega's ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' franchise. Shadow was created by Takashi Iizuka and Shiro Maekawa, and first made his debut in ''Sonic Adventure 2'' (2001). Although this was intended to be his only appearan ...

'', and '' Nights: Journey of Dreams''. In an effort to further broaden Sonic's appeal to western markets, Iizuka gave western developer,

Backbone Entertainment Backbone Entertainment was an American video game developer based in Emeryville, California. The company was formed in 2003 as the result of a merger between developers Digital Eclipse and ImaginEngine. In 2005, Backbone merged with The Collect ...

, a shot at developing Sonic titles ('' Sonic Rivals'' & '' Sonic Rivals 2'') under his team's supervision for the

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

console. In 2008, Sega's American division, Sega Studio USA, was absorbed back into Sonic Team Japan, making Iizuka the producer for the ''Sonic'' series at Sonic Team and the head of the company as well. In 2016, Iizuka relocated to Los Angeles to become the VP of Product Development at Sega of America, while retaining his title as the head of Sonic Team. In 2022, it was revealed that Iizuka designed a game named ''Devil & Pii'' for the Sega Genesis in 1992, but it was never released. It would finally be released on October 27, 2022 for the Sega Genesis Mini 2, however.

Legacy

Game journalist from ''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...

'' described Takashi Iizuka as a difficult man to read, as he tends to slip into corporate speak especially when discussing mixed reception of ''Sonic'' games. His long time colleague and composer, Tomoko Sasaki, however described him as someone who "offered a different and fresh, almost unpredictable, way of thinking" and got along well with him from the very start.

Works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iizuka, Takashi Living people Japanese video game designers 1970 births Sega people Japanese video game producers Japanese video game directors People from Kawaguchi, Saitama