List of legendary devs who created some of the best classics in gaming who suddenly dropped off the radar and at the current time shockingly aren't working on anything major or have been relegated to small (mobile/digital) games.

1. Yu Suzuki aka Leonardo Da Vinci of Gaming hasn't been able to sell any of his ideas to publishers in the last 10 years. WTF

2. left open out of respect for Suzuki san cuz no one has been wronged as much as him

3. Yuji Naka of sonic hasn't made anything big since the 90s, works at Prope making small games

4. IGA of castleroid fame has no job

5. Itagaki, disappeared after DOA4. Currently working on Devils Third which was announced 5 years ago and still looks bad

To me this sums up the state of gaming perfectly. Japan is becoming more and more irrelevant and the industry is moving towards Western oriented, often cinematic, hand holding games and less about stylized, skill based games. That's why studios like Platinum, games like Dragon's Dogma and certain indies that try to imitate the stuff from the good ole days are so valued these days.

You cannot be syria.

I gotta catch up with VGC jargon.

I was expecting Sakaguchi. I left dissapointed.

*Looks lovingly at Order of Ecclesia, which released in 2008*

Curse you Konami.

i cant believe ive been waiting for devils third for 5+ years now, i hope it turns out great.

We never heard anything about Joakim Mogren after they closed down the studio he was working for.

Suzuki deserves a job. Naka was executive producer on Sonic 06 so maybe that contributed to his downfall? IGA and Itagaki I cannot comment on. To the rest of the post, I agree that we are hearing a lot less from Japan.

The guy who worked on Sonic is out of a job.....big surprise...

He listed Itagaki, which at least works on a console game. I'd consider Sakaguchi's case as worse than that.