Yuji Naka is best known as one of the key creators behind the character Sonic the Hedgehog, as well as the founder and first head of the Sega studio Sonic Team. However, the actual creation of the character's design is usually attributed to Naoto Ohshima, and in recent years, Naka has been best known for questionable business dealings that nearly landed him behind bars (though he ultimately received a four-year suspended sentence, which he is still serving).
Now, a former Sega boss, Mike Fischer, has commented in an interview with Sega-16 on what it was like to work with Naka, and he immediately delivers scathing criticism, summarizing the Sonic creator as follows:
"He is literally the most miserable person I have ever worked with in games or anything else in my life, just a horrible human being, and you can quote me on that. As you know, he's also now also a convicted felon."
Fischer worked at Sega for many years across two stints and is considered, among other things, the architect behind the stealth launch of the Sega Saturn, which is often regarded as a catastrophic mistake. He left in 1997 but made a comeback in 2001 after the Dreamcast's demise. He claims to have witnessed first-hand how Yuji tried to take credit for other people's work and rewrite gaming history:
"I was there for the birth of Sonic the Hedgehog, and when the memo came out, they said to every employee, 'We want to come up with the new Mario-killer mascot character. We want everyone to come up with an idea.' I watched them pick the winners. I watched Yuji Naka steal credit for it."
He goes on to give a specific example in the interview of how he believes Naka has cut corners throughout his career, and feels that Ohshima, and possibly others as well, should have received more credit for Sonic the Hedgehog:
"I saw [Naka] at one point get up on stage and receive a lifetime achievement award for creating Sonic the Hedgehog. I saw him give an interview where he talked about why he decided to make Sonic blue, and, as you know, he wasn't responsible for any of that. That was all [Naoto] Ohshima, and Ohshima-san is one of the most wonderful, kind-hearted people you'll ever meet in your life.
The only reason that I agreed to talk to the guy who wrote Console Wars was because I wanted to set the record straight, and I'm really proud that it is now on the record... he just was so malignant in trying to rewrite history. You know that Ohshima-san worked on Blinx the Cat. When we had the Xbox One debut, he was there, and Naka-san was invited and refused to sit in the same row as Ohshima-san because he accused Ohshima-san of trying to steal his credit."
Next year, Naka will be a free man again. His latest game was the critically panned Balan Wonderworld from 2021, in which Ohshima was also involved. However, it ended in a major falling-out, and Naka was fired by Square Enix six months before its completion. Whether Naka will ever return to the gaming industry remains unclear.