Yuji Naka
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, credited in some games as YU2, is a Japanese
video game designer Video game design is the process of designing the rules and content of video games in the Video game development#Pre-production, pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the Video game development ...
and programmer. He is the co-creator of the ''
Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese developers Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara for Sega. The franchise follows Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battle ...
'' series and was the president of
Sonic Team , doing business as , is a Japanese video game developer owned by Sega. Sonic Team is best known for its ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series and games such as '' Nights into Dreams'' and '' Phantasy Star Online''. The initial team, formed in 1990, c ...
at
Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...
until his departure in 2006. Naka joined Sega in 1984 and worked on games including '' Girl's Garden'' (1985) and '' Phantasy Star II'' (1989). He was the lead programmer of the original ''Sonic'' games on the
Mega Drive The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...
in the early 1990s, which greatly increased Sega's market share. After developing ''
Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese developers Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara for Sega. The franchise follows Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battle ...
'' (1991) in Japan, Naka moved to California to develop '' Sonic the Hedgehog 2'' (1992), ''
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a 1994 platform game developed by Sega Technical Institute and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis. Like previous ''Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic'' games, players traverse side-scrolling levels while collecting Rings (Sonic the Hedgehog), ri ...
'' (1994) and ''
Sonic & Knuckles is a 1994 platform game developed by Sega Technical Institute and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis. Players control Sonic the Hedgehog or Knuckles the Echidna in their quests to save Angel Island; Sonic tries to stop Doctor Robotnik fro ...
'' (1994) with
Sega Technical Institute Sega Technical Institute (STI) was an American video game developer owned by Sega. Founded by the Atari veteran Mark Cerny in 1990, STI sought to combine elite Japanese developers, including the Sonic Team programmer Yuji Naka and his team, wit ...
. Naka returned to Japan to lead development on Sonic Team games including '' Nights into Dreams'' (1996), ''
Burning Rangers is a 1998 action game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Sega Saturn. Players control one of an elite group of firefighters, the Burning Rangers, who extinguish fires and rescue civilians in burning buildings in a futuristi ...
'' (1998), ''
Sonic Adventure is a 1998 platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. It was the first main ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' game to feature 3D gameplay. It follows Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Pr ...
'' (1998) and '' Phantasy Star Online'' (2000). After Sega left the console market in 2001, Naka remained as an executive officer and oversaw its output for the next five years. In 2006, Naka left Sega and founded the independent game company Prope. He joined
Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, video game publisher and entertainment conglomerate. It releases role-playing video game, role-playing game franchises, such as ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', and '' ...
to direct the platform game '' Balan Wonderworld'' (2021), which reunited him with ''Sonic'' co-creator
Naoto Ohshima (born February 26, 1964) is a Japanese video game designer and artist, best known for designing Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr. Eggman from Sega's ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' franchise. Although Yuji Naka made a tech demo around which ''Sonic'' gameplay ...
. Naka said he was removed from the project six months before ''Balan Wonderworld'' was released, and it underperformed critically and commercially. He left Square Enix in April 2021. In 2023, Naka was found guilty of
insider trading Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider informati ...
at Square Enix.


Early life

Naka was born on September 17, 1965, in
Hirakata 260px, Hirakata Park is a city in northeastern Osaka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 397,681 in 183075 households and a population density of 6100 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Hirakat ...
, Osaka. He learned to program by replicating and
debugging In engineering, debugging is the process of finding the Root cause analysis, root cause, workarounds, and possible fixes for bug (engineering), bugs. For software, debugging tactics can involve interactive debugging, control flow analysis, Logf ...
video game code printed in magazines. The experience prompted him to study
assemblers Assembler may refer to: Arts and media * Nobukazu Takemura, avant-garde electronic musician, stage name Assembler * Assemblers, a fictional race in the ''Star Wars'' universe * Assemblers, an alternative name of the superhero group Champions of ...
and practice writing code during his school classes. After graduating, Naka decided not to enroll in university and stayed in Osaka.


Career


1983–1989: Beginnings at Sega

Around 1983, Naka saw that the video game company
Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...
was looking for programming assistants and applied. Following a brief interview, he began working for Sega in April 1984. His first task was designing maps and checking
floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...
s for ''
Lode Runner ''Lode Runner'' is a 2D puzzle-platform game, developed by Doug Smith and published by Broderbund in 1983. Its gameplay mechanics are similar to ''Space Panic'' from 1980. The player controls a character who must collect all the gold pieces in ...
'' for the
SG-1000 The is a home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was Sega's first entry into the home video game hardware business. Developed in response to a downturn in arcades starting in 1982, the SG-1000 was created on the advice of Hayao Nak ...
; he could not recall if the game was released. His first major project was '' Girl's Garden'' (1985), which he and the composer Hiroshi Kawaguchi created as part of their training process. Their boss was impressed and decided to publish the game, and it earned them notice among their peers and Japanese gamers. Naka felt embarrassed about his code, and did not want to release the game. He developed games going with the flow, and did not do task management at all. The pace of game development was 1 game every one or two months, and he was essentially living at the company; he recalled bragging with
Yu Suzuki is a Japanese game designer, producer, programmer, and engineer, who headed Sega's AM2 team for 18 years. Considered one of the first auteurs of video games, he has been responsible for a number of Sega's arcade hits, including three-dimensi ...
on who worked more overtime. During the
Master System The is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console manufactured and developed by Sega. It was originally a remodeled export version of the Sega Mark III, the third iteration of the SG-1000 series ...
era, Naka wanted to develop games that were not possible on Nintendo's
Famicom The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...
. Examples of this include the 3D dungeons of ''
Phantasy Star is a series of console role-playing video games and other supplementary media created by Sega. The series debuted in 1987 on the Master System with '' Phantasy Star'', and continues into the present with ''Phantasy Star Online 2'' and other ex ...
'' and
ports Ports collections (or ports trees, or just ports) are the sets of makefiles and Patch (Unix), patches provided by the BSD-based operating systems, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD, as a simple method of installing software or creating binary packages. T ...
of ''
Space Harrier is a third-person arcade rail shooter game developed by Sega and released in 1985. It was originally conceived as a realistic military-themed game played in the third-person perspective and featuring a player-controlled fighter jet, but techni ...
'' and ''
OutRun (also stylized as ''OutRun'') is an arcade driving video game released by Sega in September 1986. It is known for its pioneering hardware and graphics, nonlinear gameplay, a selectable soundtrack with music composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi, and ...
,'' which ran on powerful arcade hardware. The
Mega Drive The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...
was introduced suddenly, much like the Master System. It was only around the
32X The 32X is an video game accessory, add-on for the Sega Genesis video game console. Codenamed "Project Mars", it was designed to expand the power of the Genesis and serve as a transitional console into the History of video game consoles (fifth ...
's release in 1994 that Sega gave Naka information about hardware beforehand. ''
Super Thunder Blade ''Super Thunder Blade'' is a 1988 Rail shooter, rail shooter game developed and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis. It sees players controlling a helicopter as they gun down military vehicles in various different environments. The gameplay f ...
'' was the first game he programmed for the Mega Drive. He requested that sprite-scaling be implemented in future models of the console. However, he was told that it was not possible at the time. He also requested a 6Mbit cartridge for '' Phantasy Star II'', which was approved. The Mega Drive was Naka's favourite hardware, and he said that he could have kept working on it forever just by making the
clock speed Clock rate or clock speed in computing typically refers to the frequency at which the clock generator of a processor can generate pulses used to synchronize the operations of its components. It is used as an indicator of the processor's ...
faster. During a visit to the 1988 Amusement Machines Show, Naka was impressed by the ability to move diagonally on slopes in a demonstration of
Capcom is a Japanese video game company. It has created a number of critically acclaimed and List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil'', ''Monster ...
's game ''
Ghouls 'n Ghosts ''Ghouls 'n Ghosts'', known as in Japan, is a 1988 platform video game developed and published by Capcom for arcades. It is the sequel to '' Ghosts 'n Goblins'' and the second game in the '' Ghosts 'n Goblins'' series. It was a commercial suc ...
''. Hoping to recreate it, he asked his supervisors at Sega to allow him to port the game to the Mega Drive. Capcom provided him with the
source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...
and
ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...
data. As he was developing the port, he experimented with aspects such as the speed of the main character to understand how they interacted with the environment. He also altered the slopes and was able to create a functioning 360-degree loop. Sprite-scaling was still a technique that Naka wanted to improve his skill on with a game called ''Metal Lancer'', but it was cancelled halfway through development.


1989–1991: ''Sonic the Hedgehog''

Sega's president
Hayao Nakayama is a Japanese businessman and was the former President and CEO of Sega Enterprises, Ltd from 1983 to 1999. Early life and career Nakayama was born into a family of doctors, and was expected to pursue medicine as a career. However, Nakayama ...
decided that Sega needed a flagship series and mascot to compete with Nintendo's ''Mario'' franchise. Of Naka's numerous development plans, "a game to beat Super Mario", caught a superior's attention. Naka created a prototype
platform game A platformer (also called a platform game, and sometimes a jump 'n' run game) is a subgenre of action game in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels wi ...
that involved a fast-moving character rolling in a ball through a long winding tube. The idea for a hedgehog that could roll into a ball by jumping and attacking enemies came from his high school notebook, and he was unsure whether to use it. This concept was expanded out with character design by Naoto Ohshima and levels conceived by
Hirokazu Yasuhara , also credited as Carol Yas, is a Japanese video game designer. He is best known for designing the gameplay and stages of the initial ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' video games for Sega Genesis in the 1990s, based on technical demos and engines programme ...
. Naka hoped to showcase the Mega Drive's processing speed through fast and exhilarating gameplay. Part of his approach was based on his experience playing through the original ''
Super Mario Bros is a 1985 Platformer, platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It is the successor to the 1983 arcade game ''Mario Bros.'' and the first game in the ''Super Mario'' series. It was origi ...
'' (1985); he wondered why he could not complete each level faster the better he became at playing the game. The development took longer than any game Naka worked on before, and he worked only on this game for approximately a year and a half. ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' was released in 1991 and received acclaim; it greatly increased the popularity of the Sega Genesis in North America, and is credited with helping Sega gain 65% of the market share against Nintendo. Naka was dissatisfied at Sega, feeling he received little credit for the success, and quit.


1991–1994: ''Sonic'' sequels and time in California

Naka rejoined Sega when he was hired by Mark Cerny to work at
Sega Technical Institute Sega Technical Institute (STI) was an American video game developer owned by Sega. Founded by the Atari veteran Mark Cerny in 1990, STI sought to combine elite Japanese developers, including the Sonic Team programmer Yuji Naka and his team, wit ...
(STI) in California, with a higher salary and more creative freedom. At STI, Naka led development on '' Sonic the Hedgehog 2''. It was another major success, but its development suffered from the language barrier and cultural differences between the Japanese and American developers. The artist Craig Stitt described Naka as "an arrogant pain in the ass" who was not interested in working with Americans. Another artist, Tim Skelly, said that Naka would have been happier working with an all-Japanese team. After ''Sonic the Hedgehog 2'' was released in 1992, Naka refused to develop another ''Sonic'' game with the American staff. A Japanese-only team was formed, led by Naka, and developed ''
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a 1994 platform game developed by Sega Technical Institute and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis. Like previous ''Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic'' games, players traverse side-scrolling levels while collecting Rings (Sonic the Hedgehog), ri ...
'' and ''
Sonic & Knuckles is a 1994 platform game developed by Sega Technical Institute and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis. Players control Sonic the Hedgehog or Knuckles the Echidna in their quests to save Angel Island; Sonic tries to stop Doctor Robotnik fro ...
'', both released in 1994. Originally, Naka wanted to make ''Sonic 3'' a 3D game, with the SVP chip that was also used to port ''
Virtua Racing ''Virtua Racing'' or ''V.R.'' for short, is a Formula One racing video game developed by Sega AM2 and released for arcade game, arcades in 1992. ''Virtua Racing'' was initially a proof-of-concept application for exercising a new 3D graphics plat ...
'' to the Genesis. However, it took too long, and a McDonalds
Happy Meal A Happy Meal is a kids' meal usually sold at the American fast food Chain store#Restaurant chain, restaurant chain McDonald's since June 1979. A small toy or book is included with the food, both of which are usually contained in a red cardboard b ...
promotion was put in place, and to complete the game in time, it was decided that it to make a 2D game again. Once again, Naka had a specific hardware request with the lock-on cartridge technology of ''Sonic & Knuckles'', which when combined would form the complete experience, as ''Sonic 3'' was rushed to meet a deadline.


1994–1998: Return to Japan and Sega Saturn

Following the release of ''Sonic & Knuckles'', Naka returned to Japan, having been offered a role as a producer. As managing director Hisashi Suzuki brought in videotapes of ''
Virtua Racing ''Virtua Racing'' or ''V.R.'' for short, is a Formula One racing video game developed by Sega AM2 and released for arcade game, arcades in 1992. ''Virtua Racing'' was initially a proof-of-concept application for exercising a new 3D graphics plat ...
'' and ''
Virtua Fighter is a series of fighting games created by Sega AM2 and designer Yu Suzuki. The original ''Virtua Fighter (video game), Virtua Fighter'' was released in December 1993 and has received four main sequels and several spin-offs. The highly influential ...
,'' Naka was so impressed that it partly contributed to him going back to Japan. With Naka's return,
Sonic Team , doing business as , is a Japanese video game developer owned by Sega. Sonic Team is best known for its ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series and games such as '' Nights into Dreams'' and '' Phantasy Star Online''. The initial team, formed in 1990, c ...
was officially formed as a brand, and began work on a new intellectual property, '' Nights into Dreams'' (1996), for Sega's 32-bit
Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...
console. Naka did not have any desire to develop for the 32X, and was disappointed that the Saturn was not true 3D. Observing the development environment he did not want to make a Sonic game right away, and instead created ''Nights''. He persuaded his superiors that ''Nights'' would only take one year and that he would work on a 3D Sonic in 1997. However, the development took longer than expected. Naka regretted that he was not able to deliver a ''Sonic'' game for the Saturn, as this was often cited as a reason for the console's failure. Meanwhile, in America, STI worked on '' Sonic X-treme'', a 3D ''Sonic'' game. Development was hindered by numerous setbacks, culminating in its cancellation in 1996. Reportedly, Naka contributed to the cancellation by refusing to let STI use the ''Nights''
game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor. The "engine" terminology is akin to the term " software engine" u ...
and threatening to quit. The ''X-treme'' developer Chris Senn dismissed the story as speculation but said that, if true, he understood Naka's interest in maintaining control over the Sonic Team technology and the ''Sonic'' franchise. Sonic Team was developing its own 3D ''Sonic'' game using the ''Nights'' engine, which could have motivated Naka's threat. In July 2022, Naka denied that he had anything to do with ''X-treme'' use of the ''Nights'' engine and said it would have been useless because ''Nights'' was coded in assembly and ''X-treme'' was in C. He suggested that the developers invented the story to rationalize their failure to finish ''X-treme''.


1998–2001: Dreamcast

While ''
Sonic Adventure is a 1998 platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. It was the first main ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' game to feature 3D gameplay. It follows Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Pr ...
'' was in development for the Saturn, Naka was part of the "Dream Team Meetings" which involved talking about plans of what eventually became the
Dreamcast The is the final home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was released in Japan on November 27, 1998, in North America on September 9, 1999 and in Europe on October 14, 1999. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, prec ...
as early as 1996. Sonic Team proposed the name "G-Cube". Naka also proposed a multimedia concept that involved talking to a built in microphone to switch TV channels. This method of communication was then used in ''
Seaman Seaman may refer to: * Sailor, a member of a marine watercraft's crew * Seaman (rank), a military rank in some navies * Seaman (name) (including a list of people with the name) * ''Seaman'' (video game), a 1999 simulation video game for the Seg ...
''. In 1998, prior to the launch of Dreamcast, Naka and his team visited Sega of America to tour their development offices and observe their work on the game ''Geist Force'', a
rail shooter Rail shooter, also known as on-rails shooter, is a subgenre of shoot 'em up video game. Beginning with arcade games such as the 1985 '' Space Harrier'', the gameplay locks the player character into a set path, only allowing for limited or no di ...
for Dreamcast. According to the producer Mark Subotnick, Naka told his team in Japanese which parts they would take to incorporate in ''Sonic'' games and suggested firing all but one of the engineers. Unbeknownst to Naka, several of the ''Geist Force'' developers understood Japanese and quit, contributing to the project's cancellation. Shortly after the Japanese launch of the Dreamcast and ''Sonic Adventure'', Naka was contacted by Sega Chairman
Isao Okawa (May 19, 1926 – March 16, 2001) was a Japanese businessman and the former chairman of Sega. History Okawa was born in Osaka, Japan. As a young adult, he studied at Waseda University in Tokyo. After graduating from Waseda, he formed Com ...
to develop a flagship online game for the Dreamcast. Originally, Naka was unenthusiastic about the idea given his team's inexperience with creating online games. However, the other Sega development studios were preoccupied with their own demanding projects such as ''
Sakura Wars is a Japanese steampunk media franchise created by Oji Hiroi and owned by Sega. It is focused around a series of cross-genre video games. The first game in the series was released in 1996, with five sequels and numerous spin-off titles bein ...
'' series and ''
Jet Set Radio (originally released in North America as ''Jet Grind Radio'') is a 2000 action game developed by Smilebit and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. The player controls a member of a youth gang, the GG's, as they use inline skates to traverse ...
'' (2000). This left Sonic Team as the only other alternative that Okawa could rely on. In addition to their inexperience, Naka and his team saw the creation of an online game for Japan, a nation of console gamers, as a serious challenge, akin to creating a new genre. This was further complicated by the perception of online games in the late 1990s having boring visuals and the per-minute fee for dial-up internet in Japan. Naka split his team into three groups, all serving different purposes, before rejoining to develop '' Phantasy Star Online'' (2001). Two groups were focused on discovering the limits of the Dreamcast's capabilities, specifically in terms of graphical fidelity and the possibilities of online play on the system. The other group would work on various projects under Naka's supervision that would lead them closer to their goal. This would culminate with the release of Sonic Team's '' Chu Chu Rocket'' (1999), an action-puzzle game and the first game for the system to support online console gaming. Additionally, it was the only game directed by Naka at Sega as he would move on to become a producer, overseeing output from Sonic Team. Following ''Chu Chu Rocket'''s release, all three teams collaborated on the development of ''Phantasy Star Online''. It is reported that after Okawa became ill in 2000, Naka would send reports to the hospital, updating him on the team's progress. In 2000, Sega began to restructure its development operations as part of the dissolution of Sega Enterprises, transforming its arcade and console studios into semi-autonomous subsidiary companies. While each studio was given an unprecedented amount of creative freedom, Naka felt it important to preserve the Sonic Team brand name, and therefore the legal name of the company was SONICTEAM, Ltd. Naka was installed as the CEO of the new company.


2001–2006: Final years at Sega

In March 2001, Sega discontinued the Dreamcast and left the video game hardware market. Sega's semiautonomous entities were reabsorbed, including Sonic Team. Naka remained as an executive officer, overseeing all of Sega's output until his departure in 2006. According to the former Sega producer Takashi Yuda, senior Sega figures including
Toshihiro Nagoshi is a Japanese video game producer, director and designer. He was the chief creative officer for Sega until 2021 when he became creative director. He went on to be the general director of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, and later became a member of t ...
and
Yu Suzuki is a Japanese game designer, producer, programmer, and engineer, who headed Sega's AM2 team for 18 years. Considered one of the first auteurs of video games, he has been responsible for a number of Sega's arcade hits, including three-dimensi ...
were reporting to Naka. In late 2001 or early 2002, Peter Moore, the president of Sega of America, arranged
focus group A focus group is a group interview involving a small number (sometimes up to ten) of demographically predefined participants. Their reactions to specific researcher/evaluator-posed questions are studied. Focus groups are used in market researc ...
s with teenagers and found that Sega's reputation was declining. According to Moore, Naka responded angrily and accused Moore of having falsified the findings. After Sega left the hardware market, Sonic Team began developing for consoles by other manufacturers; Naka became fond of the
Nintendo GameCube The is a PowerPC-based home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the su ...
. He regretted that he did not bring '' Phantasy Star Online'' to the
PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...
, as ''
Monster Hunter is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fantasy-themed action role-playing video games, beginning with first installment '' Monster Hunter'' for the PlayStation 2, released in 2004. Titles have been released across a variety of pl ...
'' came out in 2004 and became popular.


2006–2016: Prope

On March 16, 2006, Naka announced that he would leave Sega to create his own game studio, Prope. He said he considered it a benefit to be able to create games other than ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' games. Naka also explained that the video game industry was young, leading to quick promotions; he felt his senior position had given him less time to be close to development. The last ''Sonic'' game Naka was involved was ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' (2006). He regretted leaving Sega during the middle of its development as it was poorly received. Naka and Prope developed small games for the
Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...
and mobile devices, such as '' Wii Play: Motion'' and '' Ivy The Kiwi?''. This included a reunion with Sega as they published '' Let's Tap'' and '' Let's Catch'' for the Wii. Naka explained that while it was uncommon in the west, he always maintained a strong relationship with the company despite his departure. The games helped finance their first large-scale production, '' Rodea the Sky Soldier'', which finished development in 2011 but was not released until 2015. According to Naka, the publisher, Kadokawa Games, would not release the game until they developed a version for the
Nintendo 3DS The is a foldable dual-screen handheld game console produced by Nintendo. Announced in March 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS, the console was released originally on February 26, 2011 and went through various revisions in its lifetime, ...
. Following the launch of the
Nintendo Wii U The Wii U ( ) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo as the successor to the Wii. Released in late 2012, it is the first eighth-generation video game console and competed with Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4. The Wi ...
in 2012, Kadakowa opted to create a Wii U version based on the 3DS version, delaying it until 2015. In November 2015, Kadokawa Games released ''Rodea the Sky Soldier'' on the 3DS and Wii U, while packaging Naka and Prope's Wii version as bonus bundled with the initial print of the Wii U version. In response, Naka used his social media following to request people prioritize playing the Wii version. Naka was awarded with the Bizkaia Award at the
Fun & Serious Game Festival Fun & Serious Game Festival is a video game festival that takes place, in Bilbao, Spain, from late November to the beginning of December since its foundation in 2011. Its main objective is to recognize the cultural importance of video games. To ...
in 2016.


2016–2022: Square Enix and ''Balan Wonderworld''

In 2018, Naka joined Square Enix to form the subsidiary developer Balan Company, which aimed to facilitate collaboration between internal and external staff. Naka described Balan Company as a collective of designers and artists focusing on genres outside the norms of Square Enix. Prope remained in business, but with Naka its only employee. Balan Company's first game, ''Balan Wonderworld'', was co-developed by
Arzest is a Japanese video game development company that develops games for video game consoles. It was formed on June 25, 2010 by key members of Artoon, which was also founded by Executive Vice President Naoto Ohshima, best known as the character des ...
, a company which had previously co-developed multiple projects for
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
and Mistwalker. A key staff member at Arzest was
Naoto Ohshima (born February 26, 1964) is a Japanese video game designer and artist, best known for designing Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr. Eggman from Sega's ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' franchise. Although Yuji Naka made a tech demo around which ''Sonic'' gameplay ...
, a former Sega artist who created the designs for
Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese developers Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara for Sega. The franchise follows Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battle ...
and
Doctor Eggman Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik is a Character (arts), character created by the Japanese game designer Naoto Ohshima. He is the main antagonist of Sega's ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' franchise. Eggman is a mad scientist who seeks to steal the mystical Cha ...
. When Naka joined Square Enix in January 2018, he considered making social mobile games, but was encouraged by Shinji Hashimoto to make action games for the new market, which was seeing a resurgence in classic action and platform games. Naka approached Ohshima about a collaboration, their first since ''
Sonic Adventure is a 1998 platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. It was the first main ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' game to feature 3D gameplay. It follows Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Pr ...
'' in 1998. Following disagreements with staff, Naka was removed from the project approximately six months before ''Balan Wonderworld'' was released. It received generally negative reviews and underperformed commercially. Naka left Square Enix in April 2021. On December 22, 2021, Naka released a free mobile game, ''Shot2048,'' similar to the games '' 2048'' and ''Chain Cube''. In April 2022, Naka announced that he had sued Square Enix. He said he had attempted to negotiate to address problems with ''Balan Wonderworld'', but was ignored, and said Square Enix and Arzest did not "value games or game fans". In July, Naka tweeted a photo of the ''Nights'' team with Ohshima's face blacked out, and expressed his anger over ''Balan Wonderworld''.


Insider trading charges

On November 17, 2022, Naka was arrested by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office and charged with violating the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act of 2006. The Public Prosecutors Office accused him of
insider trading Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider informati ...
; Naka bought 10,000 shares of the developer Aiming before its game '' Dragon Quest Tact'' was announced to the public. Two other former Square Enix employees were also arrested, alleged to have bought 162,000 shares between December 2019 and February 2020 for approximately 47.2 million yen. On December 7, Naka was arrested again, accused of having purchased 144.7 million yen of shares of the developer
ATeam ''The A-Team'' is an American Action television, action television series that ran on NBC from January 23, 1983, to March 8, 1987, about a fictional team of former United States Army Special Forces who work as mercenaries while on the run from ...
before their game '' Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier'' was announced. He was later indicted on insider trading charges by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office. Naka admitted his guilt in March 2023. On June 1, prosecutors asked for a sentence of two and a half years in prison and a combined fine of 172.5 million yen. On July 7, a
Tokyo District Court is a district court located at 1-1-4 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. See also *Judicial system of Japan In the judicial system of Japan, the Constitution of Japan guarantees that "all judges shall be independent in the exercise of thei ...
judge gave Naka a sentence of two years and six months in prison, suspended for four years. The judge ordered Naka to forfeit 171 million yen and pay a fine of two million yen. Following the charges, Naka made no public statements for 16 months. In April 2024, he ended his social media hiatus to respond to the news that Yu Miyake, ''
Dragon Quest previously published as ''Dragon Warrior'' in North America until 2005, is a series of role-playing video games created by Japanese game designer Yuji Horii (Armor Project), character designer Akira Toriyama (Bird Studio), and composer Koi ...
'' executive producer, was being reassigned to Square Enix's mobile division by accusing him of lying during the trial. Miyake was credited as executive officer on ''Balan Wonderworld''.


Personal life

Naka is a racer and car enthusiast, having mentioned his Ferrari 360 Spider in multiple interviews. In November 2004, he competed in round six of the Kumho Tyres Lotus Championship in
Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...
. In April 2022, Naka participated in the first round of the Elise Super Tech competition at the Mobility Resort Motegi circuit, finishing seventh place.


Works


References


External links

* *
Official Prope website


(archived by th
WaybackMachine



Yuji Naka On New Beginnings At His Studio, Prope

Life after Sega: The Sonic creator talks about being free of the hedgehog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Naka, Yuji 1965 births Living people People from Hirakata Japanese video game designers Japanese video game programmers Japanese white-collar criminals Sega people Square Enix people Japanese video game directors Japanese video game producers Game Developers Conference Lifetime Achievement Award recipients People convicted of insider trading