Sonic the Hedgehog Creator Yuji Naka Joins Square Enix

Legendary game programmer Yuju Naka is joining Square Enix. Naka is mostly known as the godfather of Sonic the Hedgehog, and former head of the Sonic Team. Together with Naoto Ohshima designing the characters and Hirokazu Yasuhara creating the stages, Sonic is a massive success on the Sega Genesis platform. Besides working on the classic Sonic titles, Naka’s credits include many titles from Sega through the 80’s up until 2006 when he left the company.

Joining the Square Enix Team

Just a quick note to let you know, I joined SQUARE ENIX in January.
I’m joining game development as before, and strive to develop games at SQUARE ENIX.
I aim to develop an enjoyable game, please look forward to it.

— Yuji Naka / 中　裕司 (@nakayuji) January 22, 2018

Naka made the announcement via Twitter on January 22, stating he will be taking on game development duties at Square Enix. Once he left Sega, Naka founded Prope, an independent video game development studio that creates games that appeal to both children and adults. Their last project was Rodea the Sky Solider for the Wii and StreetPass Fishing for the Nintendo 3DS. Both back in 2015. With Naka joining Square Enix, the future of Prope remains uncertain.

Long time fans of course are very excited with the news. Considering Square Enix’ resume when it comes to RPG games with their Final Fantasy Series. Many are hoping for a true spiritual successor to Phantasy Star. Naka himself did not disclose more details other than the announcement tweet. So it remains unclear whether he will be working on new independent properties. Moreover, it could also mean that he will be working on existing projects. We would all have to wait and see.