Jet Set Radio artist Ryuta Ueda is back at Sega

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.