Veteran game designer Yu Suzuki, the man behind the cult favourite series, not to mention Virtua Fighter, has been effectively demoted at Sega.

According to Gamespot, Suzuki will no longer maintain his role as Research and Development creative officer, but will stay at the company in some less high-profile position.

Suzuki had been an influential force at Sega, especially back in the Dreamcast days, but in more recent times he has failed to complete a number of much-vaunted projects, including the now axed Shenmue Online.

Curiously, Sega's chief last year made the mistake of saying that Suzuki was no longer even at the firm; a statement dismissed later as a simple mistake.

Suzuki will maintain a management role at Sega, but it seems unlikely we'll be hearing of any ambitious new ventures anytime soon.

By Luke Guttridge