Balan Wonderworld director, and Sonic the Hedgehog creator, Yuji Naka is no longer with Square Enix.
Naka announced on Twitter today he that was no longer with Square Enix, and had left the company at the end of April.
“I resigned from Square Enix at the end of April,” Naka said in the tweet (thanks, Gematsu).
“While I cannot share the reason right now, I hope to be able to discuss it when the time comes. As for what I’ll do in the future, I’m already 55 years old, so I may as well retire.”
A programmer, designer, and producer, Naka was the former head of Sonic Team, where he was the lead programmer of the original Sonic the Hedgehog series of games on the Sega Mega Drive.
With Sonic Team, he also led development on Nights into Dreams, Phantasy Star Online, and others.
In 2006, he left Sega to found Prope, an independent game company. The team created Digimon games for PSP and PS3, but it’s most known for Rodea the Sky Soldier for Wii and Wii U. The company also develops mobile titles.
He joined Square Enix in January 2018, where he directed Balan Wonderworld.
Balan Wonderworld was released on consoles and PC on March 26, and critics weren’t too fond of the title.
メディアの方やユーザーさんにお問い合わせ頂くので、2021年4月末でスクエニを退職いたしました。理由は今はお話出来ませんが、時が来ればお話出来ればと思います。今後の活動については、もう55歳なので引退もありかも知れませんね。写真はセガハードヒストリアの取材で撮って頂いた写真になります。 pic.twitter.com/YgFT0eq2Jk
— Yuji Naka / 中 裕司 (@nakayuji) June 5, 2021
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