Juro Watari, the creator of Cyber Troopers Virtual-On, has left SEGA. His resignation went into effect as of Feb, 28, according to Watari’s statement on social media.
The full statement is translated below.
I’d like to make an announcement. As of the end of February, I have resigned from Sega Corporation. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to all the people who helped me during my tenure. Thank you very much! My future plans are still undecided. With guidance and encouragement, I hope to find a new place of employment and an interesting project to which I can devote my passion. I even look forward to working with those of you on my [Twitter] timeline if I have the opportunity. Some of you may be worried about what will happen to Virtual-On. It pains me to say that I do not have any answers for you at this time. However, if there is any change at Sega in the future, I will watch the outcome attentively along with you all. Just to be sure, I’d like to add that my resignation was not because of any sort of problem. No punishment led to me being dismissed or anything like that. Thank you for understanding. I happen to be unemployed, but I still intend to tweet milquetoast stuff out as I have been. I might take some time to mentally reset myself. I would greatly appreciate it if you could continue to associate with me.
亙 重郎 on Twitter: “ご報告です。 亙は２末をもって株式会社セガを退職いたしました。 在職時は多くの方々にお世話になりました。この場を借りて厚く御礼申し上げます。 ありがとうございました！” / Twitter
Looking into Watari-san’s words, it appears he may just need a mental reboot. The most recent release of the series, Cyber Troopers: Virtual-On, was released in March 2019 in Japan. Even though the game was delisted months after, SEGA released a patch supporting the Tanita Virtual-On twin stick controllers they successfully crowdfunded. Now only time will tell on when we will get another game in the series.
