Biography
Yuji Naka (中 裕司, Naka Yūji, born September 17, 1965), credited in some games as YU2, is a Japanese video game programmer, designer and producer. 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 the Hedgehog games on the Mega Drive in the early 1990s, which greatly increased Sega's market share. Naka developed Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992), Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994) and Sonic & Knuckles (1994) in California with Sega Technical Institute. He 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, overseeing all of Sega's output.
In 2006, Naka left Sega to found 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 was removed from the project six months before the game was released, and Balan underperformed critically and commercially. He left Square Enix in April 2021. In 2023, Naka was found guilty of insider trading at Square Enix.
Filmography
all 10
Movies 6
Writer 4
TV Shows 4
self 2
Producer 1
Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Sonic Mania Adventures (2018)
"PSO" Series 15th Anniversary Concert "Sympathy 2015" Live Memorial (2016)
Hi☆sCoool! SeHa Girls (2014)
Sonic: The Birth of an Icon (2011)
Sonic: Night of the Werehog (2008)
Sonic X (2003)
Sonic Christmas Blast (1996)
Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie (1996)
Sonic the Hedgehog (1996)
Ratings
Information
Known ForProduction
GenderMale
Birthday1965-09-17 (58 years old)
Birth PlaceHirakata, Japan
CitizenshipsJapan
Also Known As中裕司, 나카 유지
AwardsGame Developers Choice Award - Lifetime Achievement
This article uses material from Wikipedia.
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