, sometimes credited as YU2, is a Japanese former video game designer and programmer. He is the co-creator of the Sonic the Hedgehog series and was the president of Sonic Team at Sega 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 in the early 1990s, which greatly increased Sega's market share. After developing Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) in Japan, Naka moved to California to develop Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992), Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994) and Sonic & Knuckles (1994) with Sega Technical Institute.
Naka returned to Japan to lead development on Sonic Team games including Nights into Dreams (1996), Burning Rangers (1998), Sonic Adventure (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 to direct the platform game Balan Wonderworld (2021), which reunited him with the Sonic co-creator Naoto Ohshima. 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 at Square Enix.
Early life
Naka was born on September 17, 1965, in Hirakata, Osaka. He learned to program by replicating and debugging video game code printed in magazines. The experience prompted him to study assemblers and practice writing code during his school classes. After graduating, he decided to stay in Osaka rather than enroll in university.
Career
1983–1989: Beginnings at Sega
Around 1983, Naka saw that the video game company Sega was looking for programming assistants and applied. His first task was designing maps and checking floppy disks for Lode Runner for the SG-1000; he could not recall if the game was released. Their boss was impressed and decided to publish the game, and it earned them notice among their peers and Japanese gamers.
During the Master System era, Naka wanted to develop games that were not possible on Nintendo's Famicom. Examples of this include the 3D dungeons of Phantasy Star and ports of Space Harrier and OutRun, which ran on powerful arcade hardware. The Mega Drive was introduced suddenly, much like the Master System. It was only around the 32X's release in 1994 that Sega gave Naka information about hardware beforehand. 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. Of Naka's numerous development plans, "a game to beat Super Mario", caught a superior's attention. Naka created a prototype platform game 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. 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 (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. 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 (STI) in California, with a higher salary and more creative freedom. 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. As Naka refused to develop another Sonic game with the American staff, he formed a Japanese-only team at STI and developed Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, both released in 1994. As managing director Hisashi Suzuki brought in videotapes of Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter, Naka was so impressed that it partly contributed to him going back to Japan. and began work on a new intellectual property, 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.
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 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 was in development for the Saturn, Naka was involved with planning Sega's next console, the Dreamcast, 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, a mode of communication later used in the Dreamcast game Seaman.
Shortly after the Japanese launch of the Dreamcast and Sonic Adventure, Naka was asked by the Sega chairman, Isao Okawa, 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 projects, such as the Sakura Wars series and Jet Set Radio (2000). 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.
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 and Yu Suzuki were reporting to Naka. In late 2001 or early 2002, Peter Moore, the president of Sega of America, arranged focus groups 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. He regretted that he did not bring Phantasy Star Online to the PlayStation 2, as Monster Hunter came out in 2004 and became popular. 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. During this time, Naka also voiced a fictionalized version of himself in the Sega-themed anime series Hi-sCoool! SeHa Girls, though his identity was concealed under the alias "Center-sensei" until the final episode.
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. Following the launch of the Nintendo Wii U 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. Naka was awarded with the Bizkaia Award at the Fun & Serious Game Festival 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, a company which had previously co-developed multiple projects for Nintendo and Mistwalker. A key staff member at Arzest was Naoto Ohshima, a former Sega artist who created the designs for Sonic the Hedgehog and Doctor Eggman. 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 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; 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. 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.
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 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. 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
{| class="wikitable sortable" width="auto"
! scope="col"|Year
! scope="col"|Game
! scope="col"|Role
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="3" |1985
| Girl's Garden
| Game designer, programmer
|-
| Great Baseball
|rowspan="6" |Programmer
|-
|F-16 Fighting Falcon <small>(Master System ver.)</small>
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="3" | 1986
| Black Belt
|-
| Spy vs. Spy <small>(Master System ver.)</small>
|-
| Space Harrier <small>(Master System ver.)</small>
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="2" |1987
| OutRun <small>(Master System ver.)</small>
|-
| Phantasy Star
|Lead programmer
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="2" | 1989
| Phantasy Star II
| Producer, lead programmer
|-
| Ghouls 'n Ghosts <small>(Genesis ver.)</small>
|rowspan="2" |Programmer
|-
| scope="row" | 1991
| Sonic the Hedgehog
|-
| scope="row" | 1992
| Sonic the Hedgehog 2
|Chief programmer
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="2" | 1994
| Sonic the Hedgehog 3
| rowspan="3" | Producer, lead programmer
|-
| Sonic & Knuckles
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="2" | 1996
| Nights into Dreams
|-
|Sonic 3D Blast
|Advisor
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="2" |1997
|Sonic Jam
|rowspan="4" |Producer
|-
|Sonic R
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="2" | 1998
| Burning Rangers
|-
| Sonic Adventure
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="2" |1999
| ChuChu Rocket!
| Director, producer
|-
|Sonic Pocket Adventure
|Supervisor
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="2" | 2000
| Samba de Amigo
| rowspan="13" | Producer
|-
| Phantasy Star Online
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="3" | 2001
| Sonic Adventure 2
|-
| Puyo Pop
|-
| Sonic Advance
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="2" |2002
|Sonic Mega Collection
|-
| Sonic Advance 2
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="5" | 2003
| Sonic Pinball Party
|-
| Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg
|-
| Phantasy Star Online Episode III
|-
| Sonic Battle
|-
| Sonic Heroes
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="5" |2004
| Puyo Pop Fever
|-
|Astro Boy
|Chief producer
|-
| Sonic Advance 3
|Producer
|-
|Sega Superstars
|rowspan="6" |Chief producer
|-
|Feel the Magic XX/YY
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="8" |2005
| Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love
|-
|Bleach Advance: Kurenai ni Somaru Soul Society
|-
|Sonic Gems Collection
|-
|The Rub Rabbits!
|-
| Shadow the Hedgehog
|rowspan="2" |Producer
|-
| Sonic Rush
|-
| Puyo Puyo Fever 2
| rowspan="4" | Chief producer
|-
|Bleach GC: Tasogare ni Mamieru Shinigami
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="4" |2006
|Bleach: The Blade of Fate
|-
|Doraemon: Nobita no Kyouryuu 2006 DS
|-
| Sonic Riders
|rowspan="2" |Executive producer
|-
| Phantasy Star Universe
|-
| scope="row" | 2008
| Let's Tap
| rowspan="8" | Producer
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="2" | 2009
| Let's Catch
|-
| Ivy the Kiwi?
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="2" | 2011
| Wii Play: Motion
|-
|Fishing Resort
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2013
|Digimon Adventure
|-
| StreetPass Mansion / Monster Manor
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="2" | 2014
| Digimon All-Star Rumble
|-
| Hi-sCoool! SeHa Girls
| Voice acting ("Center-sensei")
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="2" | 2015
| Rodea the Sky Soldier <small>(Wii ver.)</small>
| rowspan="3" |Producer
|-
| StreetPass Fishing / Ultimate Angler
|-
| scope="row" | 2016
| StreetPass Chef / Feed Mii
|-
| scope="row" | 2017
| Legend of Coin
|Programmer
|-
| scope="row" rowspan="2" | 2021
| Balan Wonderworld
| Director
|-
|Shot2048
| Game designer, programmer
|}
References
External links
- Official Prope website
- Sonic Team Speaks (archived by the WaybackMachine)
- Sega's Yuji Naka Talks!
- Yuji Naka On New Beginnings At His Studio, Prope
- Life after Sega: The Sonic creator talks about being free of the hedgehog