Former SEGA executive Mike Fischer, who worked at the company during its heyday and was working at the company when they were given the pitch to create a ‘Mario killer’ has firmly criticised Yuji Naka. in a new interview he claims Yuji Naka stole credit for the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog. He said that while Naka was the programmer, Naoto Ōshima was responsible for creating Sonic as a character and Hirokazu Yasuhara was key to the game design. Speaking about Yuji Naka, Mike Fischer candidly said that “He is literally the most miserable person I have ever worked with in games or anything else in my life, just a a horrible human being, and you can quote me on that. As you know, he’s also now also a convicted felon.” It’s a really insightful interview so I suggest giving it a read.
Fischer briefly on SEGA:
Mike Fischer: Yeah, I was there for all of it. 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, and yeah, I was very hands-on. The Genesis had already shipped in America by the time I joined, but the Game Gear still hadn’t come out. I was there from the start, translating the repair documents for the service teams. I named the Gear-to Gear cable; that was my contribution! Yeah, I was there for everything for the Game Gear.
On Yuji Naka as a person:
Mike Fischer: “I should have. He is literally the most miserable person I have ever worked with in games or anything else in my life, just a a horrible human being, and you can quote me on that. As you know, he’s also now also a convicted felon.”
On Yuji Naka taking the credit for Sonic:
“Well, the thing for me was that I saw him 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 Ōshima, and Ōshima-san is one of the most wonderful, kindhearted 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. There were three of them right? There was Ōshima, who was the character creator…
A redeeming story about Naka:
“I will say one of the few redeeming stories I’ve heard about Naka was he became aware that there was this team of pirates in China that was taking his Dreamcast games and making bootleg versions for PlayStation. So, he bought their company and hired them to do all of his porting work.”
When Yuji Naka was told by SEGA America that they wanted some mature games:
“Naka just went fucking ballistic on me, yelling at me, saying I wanted to make porno games. Literally, I’ve never seen someone foam at the mouth, but he had literally like foamy spit at the corners of his mouth. “How many games have you made? How many hits have you delivered? Who are you to come here and tell us?” And I’m like, “Dude, I’m just here to tell you where the hockey puck is going. These are the trends in the U.S. We are diverging in the games we make and the games that the market wants” and did not go wrong,” Fischer said
Harsh but fair words!
I dunno, that last section sounded like the most street/chat-level embelishment I heard in my life. Who says “dude” when speaking to a big name in the video game industry? “Foaming at the mouth”? “You wanna make porn games”?
This sounds like a gross parody. Who even talks like that?
Someone that doesn’t speak English as a first language? Like…Yuji Naka
Sounds like pretty specific accusations and a way to behave for a language barrier issue. Just saying…
So he’s the Bob Kane if gaming.
Well at least Bill Finger told Bob how to draw Batman so he did draw it. This is kind of Stan Lee like given most the heavy lifting there was Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Bill Everrett, John Romita, and others.
You are right, but also bob kane was known for using ghost artists even outside comics and taking credit.
Really I thought Jerry Robinson was the only other artist for Batman of that time? At least Kane could draw Batman if told to.
He has done a lot of really messed up things, even back in jis Sega days, stole the work, programs, assets, and ideas of others who he fired and took the full credit of, stole money, illegally manipulated the stock market, he was a jerk to everyone around him, scammed people, scammed consumers, that horrible wonderland game
Saying mean things about the co-creator of Sonic and calling Sonic a Mario-killer. Music to my ears.
Console Wars is a good read if anyone is interested, it gets my recommendation.
Not sure to take this with too much truth given he did make other things and Ohsima worked with him again on Balan. This feels like another slander piece like how many slander Inafune or Itagaki.
Yup the problem is they never sue and should
Hearing Sonic be called a “Mario-killer” will never stop being hilarious to me.
Mission absolutely failed in every conceivable way lmaooo.
I forgot he’s the Nancy Pelosi of gaming with the insider trading.
Not that you’re wrong about Pelosi, because heavens knows you’re not, but just to make sure everyone is aware of who the gold standard of corruption is in America, did you know that Donald Trump traded more volume in stock in the first quarter of this year than the whole of Congress combined. I mean I guess Yuji Naka’s corruption is indeed more comparable to Pelosi’s in that neither of them can match up to the maestro of corruption himself.
He’s also responsible for 27.7% of the total deficit. MAGAts are deranged.
Wait, he is?
Yeah, imagine if every president closed like that
Yeah this is like what Hitler does when he terrorized Europe and kill almost millions of people on the planet, he is the most hated being that ever existed.
Hitler never did that also didn’t kill millions but go ahead listen to zionists that attack Muslims who he actually revered
Yes he did.
Nah it’s soytards like you that probably should have been beaten harder in school
I mean with the current leader and his administration…Pelosi is the one you chose?
Pelosi is directly involved with corruption and has nepo nephew installed as governor of California bowing down the Chiba but go ahead be a hypocrite and live a lie you are no better still living in the US is my guess and still supporting companies like Apple that support Trump but go ahead and pretend to act superior.
Do people really need to throw shit at Democrats in every news story?
I know it gets the clicks, but stories like this are annoying in my opinion. I don’t come to game news sites for gossip. If you had some kind of large-sample survey about Naka from everyone he’s worked with? Fine. But this he-said she-said stuff is just obnoxious. Especially because the angle is always the same: “is person behind beloved thing actually EVIL!?”
I’m not saying Naka is a good guy, he engaged in (white collar) criminal activity. But getting loud or “mean”? I don’t care. It’s hard word these people do, sometimes tempers flare or personalities clash. Did they make a good game for us to play is all we should care about.
Yes, I would prefer a perfect world where no one is ever mean, but last I checked that isn’t reality.
In fact, I bet if you dig deep enough, someone at My Nintendo News was once mean to someone else :-O EXCLUSIVE NEWS!!!
People these days have got it in their head that they can stop what they believe is evil by simply cutting off the money supply of people that do said evil. Money can make it easier, sure, but the lack of it will NEVER actually stop evil.
This just feels like trending at this point.
Meanwhile, Iizuka has bad taste in what direction characters should go, and Ian Flynn writes whatever he wants without any regard for other people’s ideas/concerns.
Blame Aaron Webber too he got rid of Nagoshi and is ruining all of Sega. When Naka was in charge Sonic games were still good he left before 2006. Also Iizuka blocked Adventure 3 and remakes but is making CD remake? Agreed on the Ian Flynn thing he was hired by his buddy Webber and Flynn’s crazy staff need to go along with the IDW deal that company is run by crazy people that support murdering people cheering on Charlie Kirk’s murder how Sega allows it is because of him.
I have no words to say. Those are deep harsh words SEGA executive just said. But does makes a good fair point. Taking credits for others works and claim it as yours is mess up.
This kind of article is a disgrace to the integrity of this website.
Read the article, this was an interview. I don’t think the mynintendo staff made this article because it was their opinion, they just wanted to report on it because it was said during an interview.
How? What’s the problem with an article about a prominent person in the video game industry?
I have more of a problem with people who start a flame war with politics in the comments (I try to escape that crap by coming here) and that guy who keeps spamming the same bible junk if someone so much as types “crap”.
When I heard Yuji Naka was arrested for insider trading, that was the final thing that made me think “I bet this guy stole the credit for Sonic.” It made sense. He made that terrible game at Square Enix – it made no sense coming from the supposed creator of Sonic. And the type of people who commit fraud-like crimes tend to be the same types of people who steal the credit for others’ achievements.
He basically did since he treats himself as the father of Sonic when it was a group effort with him, Naoto Onshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara.
Yes because after the development of Balan Wonderworld was wrap up, Yuji Naka mentions that he only has one shot for this game if its not successful and won’t have much ratings. However, committing fraud crimes, stealing credit and other people’s hard on work who helped designed Sonic the Hedgehog and the franchise as a whole is practically unethical.
Not the first time people have said Yuji Naka was kind of an ass.
I don’t have issue as long as mynintendonews also shares positive pull quotes from interviews which I believe they do.
You can easily look up all the horrible things about him online, many things that are proven facts. He is horrible. He was supposed to go to prison but because he is rich he only got four years probation with a fine of over one million dollars.
But when they gonna add more sexy costumes for the smoking hot female characters tho..?
I can recommend reading Console Wars. It’s absolute peak gaming history.
If I’m not mistaken, Naka was also the person who hid his dev team’s names in black text over a black background because he wanted to fight for their recognition during a time when programmers weren’t allowed to put their real names in the credits.
So, y’know, he did some good things too.
He also made games that gave joy to millions of people and helped keep Sega afloat for over a decade. His games spurred Nintendo and Sony to try even harder in the mascot space.
He’s not perfect, but no one is.
So again…. take the good with the bad. I’d argue the good far outweighs the bad.
Yeah and Adolf made lovely art
Have we even seen H-man’s art? Also, maybe there was a reason why he didn’t get into art school.
Besides, Yuji Naka never went despot on the world with casualties to his name.
Wow. Straight from Yuki Naka to Adolf Hitler! That’s impressive!!
Naka did create other things like Phantasy Star, Nights, Billy Hatcher and his influence on Sonic is there he left around 2006 and did other games with warm responses until Square made him turn a mobile game into a console mess Balan Wonderworld. I hope he can sue this clown. Yu Suzuki was Sega’s great though and they should bring him back to oversee RGG and make Shenmue 4 and 5 finally remaking 1-3 also bring that anime back.
It’s unfortunate when the legacy of a legendary game becomes overshadowed by disputes over credit and personality conflicts. Sonic’s success changed the gaming industry, and it sounds like multiple talented people played key roles in making that happen.
Interesting interview. While it’s impossible for outsiders to know exactly what happened decades ago, I appreciate hearing perspectives from people who were actually there during SEGA’s peak years. Gaming history is often much messier than the stories we hear publicly.