How did Rieko Kodama die? Japanese game artist cause of death Explained

Rieko Kodama, a well-known Sega developer, producer, and artist demise at 59. Let’s see how she died and Rieko Kodama cause of death in detail

How did Rieko Kodama die?

Sega has recently confirmed Rieko Kodama’s demise. After Retro Gamer editor Nick Thorpe tweeted a tribute to the creator discovered in the credits for the recently released Mega Drive Mini 2, rumors of her demise started to spread online.

To check if this might have been a mistranslation, the Ares Arcadia Twitter account contacted Sega producer Yosuke Oskunari, but Oskunari confirmed that Kodama had passed away.

According to Sega, Kodama passed away in May at the age of 59, but the corporation chose not to publicly mourn her passing out of respect for her family.

Kodama has been associated with Sega since 1984. Kodama began working for the organization as a graphic designer before transitioning into producing and directing positions.

Since Sega initially prohibited the use of real names in the credits of its games, Kodama was frequently credited as “Phoenix Rie.”

Kodama worked on numerous significant projects for Sega throughout her 35-year career, including some of the studio’s most well-liked games.

Rieko Kodama cause of death

Her cause of death wasn’t immediately disclosed by her family or any online outlets. Until an obituary was found in the staff credits for the Sega Genesis Mini 2 in October 2022, no one knew she had passed away.

@okunari Hello Okunari-san, usually when writing "In memory of", it is used for those who have passed away. May I ask if Kodama-san passed away or if this is just an odd use of this phrase? https://t.co/9S0POa66QJ

— Ares Arcadia (@AresArcadia) October 26, 2022

Medico topics have been trying to reach out to the family and relatives for comment on the incident. So far no responses have been received. We will update the page once enough information is available. More information on Rieko Kodama cause of death will be added soon.

Who is Rieko Kodama?

Rieko Kodama, also known as Phoenix Rie, was a Japanese video game director, producer, and artist who worked for Sega. She was born in May 1963 and passed away on May 9, 2022 (Japanese: Hepburn: Kodama Rieko).

She is known for her work on role-playing games (RPGs), such as the original Phantasy Star series, the 7th Dragon series, and Skies of Arcadia, Kodama joined Sega as a graphic designer in 1984. (2000).

Also, she is also well known for her artistic contributions to games for the Master System and Sega Genesis, such as Sonic the Hedgehog (1988) and Altered Beast (1991).

Kodama began her career as a graphic designer but eventually advanced to the position of director and producer, which she held until her passing in 2022.

One of the earliest successful women in the video game industry is frequently cited as Kodama.

She was frequently questioned about her opinions on the interaction between women and video games.

Kodama thought that because young females were exposed to video games more as children, more women were becoming interested in the culture.

She didn’t build games specifically for female audiences, but she did create characters that appeal to both men and women and stay away from characteristics that are unfair to women.

Rieko Kodama’s Early life

In May 1963, Rieko Kodama was born in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan. When she was younger, she liked to play arcade games.

Kodama has a passion for creating advertisements in high school. She was unsure whether to pursue studies in art or archaeology after enrolling in college because she had an interest in Egyptology. She failed all of her classes as a result of her indecisiveness.

She recalled her initial fascination with advertising and decided to fully devote herself to her love of the arts by enrolling in an advertising design course at a trade school.

She quickly developed a passion for graphic design and wanted to focus on producing her work rather than promoting others in the advertising industry. She was interested in the video game industry because it was a new one. The Famicom had just been released, and home gaming systems were still relatively new.

The majority of the industry was still focused on arcade games. Kodama was curious about the business because she rarely visited arcades and thought that learning more about the industry would be a nice opportunity to challenging herself.

A trailblazing female in the video game Industry

In her early works, Kodama was known as Phoenix Rie. In the middle of the 1980s, she made her debut in the video game industry as a graphic designer.

She has worked on games like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Skies of Arcadia, but she is best recognized for her role as Phantasy Star IV’s director, one of the series’ creative leaders.

Despite being recognized as a trailblazer in a field where men predominated, Kodama was infamously uncomfortable in the spotlight and gave credit to the rest of her team when she received a Pioneer Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards.

Career History of Rieko Kodama 

In 1984, Kodama was hired by Sega through a former coworker of hers who already worked there. She had first anticipated working in graphic and advertising design, but after seeing the game development division, she felt that would also be enjoyable.

She quickly picked up graphic design skills from Yoshiki Kawasaki, the Flicky sprite artist (1984). Her first position was creating characters for the arcade game Champion Boxing (1984). She kept working on several arcade games, like Sega Ninja (1984).
Kodama would occasionally work on five to six games at once due to the compressed production cycles and the lack of design staff at Sega.

She created artwork for Alex Kidd in Miracle World for the Master System (1986), was “seriously involved” with Quartet for the arcade and Master System (1986), and Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa for the Master System (1986). (1987).

Every day, Kodama would receive tiny requests to create assets for various projects, such as the dragon from Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord (1987) and an adversary for The Black Onyx’s SG-1000 version (1987).

Kodama was also the editor of the Japanese Sega Players Enjoy Club newsletter (SPEC). In many of her early works, Kodama gave herself the name “Phoenix Rie”, “Phenix Rie” [sic], or a close version. This happened because Sega at the time prohibited game developers from using their names in their creations. The alias was inspired by a manga character.

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