Child of Eden

Tetsuya Mizuguchi has created and designed some of the most interesting, memorable, and unique video games of the modern era over the years. However, the artist is hanging up his paint brush.

Q Entertainment spoke with Eurogamer, revealing the news that Mizuguchi would be moving away from production and development, but will remain with the company:

“Right now Mizuguchi does not produce the games,” Q Entertainment director Nobuhiko Shimizu told Eurogamer in Tokyo today. Since completing work on 2011′s Child of Eden Mizuguchi has become involved in academic work, though he remains at the company he co-founded. “He’s now more of a spokesperson,” Shimizu continued. “He’s not developing stuff right now.”

Mizuguchi has heavily influenced the gaming industry during long tenures at Sega and Q Entertainment, creating games like Sega Rally, Space Channel 5, Rez, Lumines, Ninety-Nine Nights, and Child of Eden.

Q Entertainment added that “the popularity of card-battling games in Japan” is going to be the current focus of the company’s development efforts. GREE and Mobage have been heavily capitalizing on that genre in the mobile market, which is drawing groups like Square Enix to produce games like Guardian Cross.

Source: Eurogamer