Balan Wonderworld Director & Sonic Co-Creator Yuji Naka Leaves Square Enix
Yuji Naka, one of the key creative minds behind the Sonic the Hedgehog series and director of Square Enix's Balan Wonderworld, has stepped away from the company, and possibly video games entirely. In a tweet on his official Twitter feed, Naka announced that he is no longer working at Square Enix following Wonderworld's lackluster performance. He has yet to give any reason for the departure, but speculates that he may fully retire.
Naka's longstanding career as a video game programmer saw him as one of the key figures in the development of the original Sonic the Hedgehog, where his algorithms for moving a sprite along a curve helped lay the foundation for the blue hedgehog's signature moves. Over his twenty-plus-year career at SEGA, Naka continued to work on the Sonic series, along with other successful properties, such as Phantasy Star Online, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, and Nights Into Dreams. He left SEGA in 2006 to establish his own independent game company, Prope, before being hired on at Square Enix. The move reunited him with Naoto Ohshima, Sonic's designer, as they worked on Square Enix's platformer, Balan Wonderworld.
But in stark contrast to his otherwise successful career, Naka's first directing credit since 1999, Balan Wonderworld, fell flat both critically and commercially when it released back in March. The game's failure is partially attributed to Square Enix's decision to deny access to critics before the game's release, but is largely due to its poor controls, cliché gameplay, and seizure-inducing effects. Naka reportedly resigned from Square Enix in April, shortly after Balan Wonderworld's release. This was announced on his Facebook page, and then confirmed on June 4 via Twitter, as reported by PC Gamer.
It's currently unclear whether or not Naka's decision to resign is due to Wonderworld's failure. At the time of this writing, Naka has offered up no explanation for his departure from Square Enix, although he hopes to do so "when the time comes." The question of whether he will return to Prope, his own private company, is also a matter of speculation, as Naka is, according to his tweet, contemplating retirement. Considering that Naka is reportedly currently unable to discuss the terms of his departure, and the proximity of it to the ill-fated release of Balan Wonderworld, it wouldn't be surprising if Naka's resignation was coerced by the higher ups at Square Enix, rather than a decision he made on his own.
But if he does retire, it will mark the end of one of the most prolific and successful careers in gaming. Naka's work laid the foundation for the physics in modern gaming that we often take for granted. It would be a shame for one of the most pivotal programmers in the gaming world to end his storied career on a lackluster game like Balan Wonderworld.
Source: Yuji Naka/Twitter, PC Gamer
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