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Jet Set Radio artist Ryuta Ueda is back at Sega

The artist behind Jet Set Radio is back at Sega 7 years after his departure.

Donovan Erskine

September 3, 2021 9:45 AM

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The Jet Set Radio titles are some of the most unique in Sega’s catalogue. Despite the games having a faithful following, it’s been nearly 20 years since the last entry was released. Now, the rumor mill will certainly begin to churn, as Ryuta Ueda, who worked as an artist on the Jet Set Radio games, has made his return to Sega after leaving the company 7 years ago.

Ryuta Ueda announced his return to Sega in a Facebook post back in May of this year, which we learned about through VGC. “I retired from Yahoo Co Ltd. and went back to Sega as the old man. Thank you very much to all of you who met a lot of people through various projects on yahoo and got a lot of learning, thank you very much,” Ueda said in the post. “I will devote myself to making games again in the future,” he continued. Ueda first left Sega in 2014 for a job at Yahoo.

It’s also interesting to note that the news of Ueda’s return to Sega comes just following the announcement that Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi had left the studio. Ueda served as a director on the earlier Yakuza titles, so it could definitely be speculated that he may play a large role in the development of a new Yakuza game in the future.

There’s been a strong fan demand for a revival of the Jet Set Radio series, especially after the reveal of its spiritual successor, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. Though there hasn’t been any official announcements, Ueda’s return to Sega could be a step toward making those wishes a reality. The idea of him returning to the Yakuza franchise is also quite the tasty prospect for fans of that series. If Sega reveals any upcoming projects being worked on by Ryuta Ueda, you can expect to read about it here on Shacknews.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_