Sonic 2 had been made in California at the Sega Technical Institute, or STI. The studio had been founded as one of the earliest “cross cultural” studios in the video game landscape. It was headed by the famed Mark Cerny, same man who ended up designing the PS4 and PS5 hardware. The idea was to take Sega’s best developers from Japan, the US, and Europe and combine them into a “Super Team” with their unique design philosophies melding into one to create great unique games.
Sonic 2 was the only title designed under Cerny and Kalinske’s original goals for the studio, with all members of the studio working on the game. After Sonic 2 was finished, Naka decided that the game wasn’t good enough because it had too many Western developers in the pipeline. He demanded that the sequel for Sonic be touched only by the Japanese members. If they didn’t concede to his demands, he threatened he would go back to Japan and possibly leave Sega.
In what would become a recurring situation for Sega in regards to his demands, they basically gave him everything he wanted. The Japanese members were given their own exclusive wing that required key card access. The American developers at STI (outside of the sound crew, who were mostly American) were forbidden from accessing the game unless Naka gave permission. Any ideas they had were thrown in the trash by Naka and he barely spoke with any of them during Sonic 3’s two year development. He basically took over the studio. I don’t think Cerny has ever stated why he left STI, but I feel like Naka’s arrogance had to have played a role.
In the end, STI became two studios. The american team would develop Sonic Spinball and later on Comix Zone. The Japanese team did Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles. After that, Naka and his team packed their bags and headed back to Japan where they rejoined (and subsequently took over in what was basically a coup de tat) Sonic Team, which had developed Sonic CD without Naka. Then they started working on Nights, which was going to be his magnum opus.
The dream of a cross cultural studio died with Sonic 3’s early development. And that was mostly Naka’s fault.
Like another poster said earlier, Naka was never a good game designer. Other members of his team specialized at that role.
His genius and expertise was in programming, especially in assembly languages. The man was a whiz kid with the Zilog Z80 and the Motorola 68000, along with their support chips. The titles he programmed were usually titans in the 8bit and 16bit industry. Especially his physics solutions. That is where he shined. Sonic’s momentum based physics were a game changer in 1991.
People credit him with Sonic, but he actually didn’t have that much to do with the character’s design, artwork, or backstory. Naka’s contribution to the character was designing the engine that powered the Hedgehog’s game. Sonic played like nothing else on the market, thanks primarily to its unique physics system.
That wasn’t the US team’s decision. Kalinske was aiming for a September launch when they would have around 12 to 14 launch titles ready.
His decision was overruled by Hayao Nakayama, SOJ CEO. Nakayama wanted to beat Sony to market by four months. Kalinske tried to talk sense in Nakayama and he had high hopes he could change his mind since Nakayama had always sided with Kalinske when the other SOJ upper officers formed coalitions to try and overrule Kalinske. Other members of SOA didn’t have that much faith anymore and started jumping ship to Sony or getting out of the hardware business entirely.
But this time he didn’t change his mind and go with Tom’s plans. He had made up his mind and he put his foot down. Kalinske was given two choices; launch early or resign. He chose to bend to Nakayama’s knee because he still had hope that the SOA team could turn things around after the early launch. But by that point the exodus of talent out of SOA had become an avalanche. He lost the team that built the Genesis to its success almost to a man and woman.
Naka was a genius during the 8-bit and 16-bit eras. He pushed the Master System and the Genesis to their breaking points with his games.
But his central issue was his lack of foresight as the industry transitioned, his grade-A egotistical megalomania, and his outright hatred of his American counterparts at Sega. The dude was a dick. Plain and simple. And he refused to evolve as time went on.
That sounds like Naka. He was a genius programmer (Phantasy Star for the Master System was a work of art in programming terms), but he was a grade-A jerk who thought his dumps didn’t stink. He was a terrible team player at Sega. The Sonic Xtreme team built one of their early prototypes in a modified beta Nights engine. Naka saw it, threw one of the most legendary fits in Sega history, and had it completely stripped from them. Despite working for the same company, he wouldn’t allow them to use a modified Nights engine for their Sonic game.
Actions like that killed Sega’s console ambitions, because a bunch of people in Sega’s key positions around the company were egotistical maniacs. They were the complete opposite of Nintendo’s internal teams, who often worked together on projects and shared game engines and technical solutions to complex problems. Most of Sega’s teams worked completely alone and threw fits when people in other teams (especially if they were an American team) asked for assistance or if they could use some of their tech solutions.
The emulation community has made some good progress with Saturn emulation in the past few years. It’s still not fantastic but commercial games are playable at semi decent performance now.
Sega could tap into that talent to rerelease some Saturn gems. With some financial backing and larger work teams I bet the Saturns weird architecture could be conquered.
Comments 10
Re: Yuji Naka Killed "Dreamcast's Star Fox", Says Former Sega Producer
@DK-Fan
He’s always been a grade A jerk.
A really good example is Sonic 3’s development.
Sonic 2 had been made in California at the Sega Technical Institute, or STI. The studio had been founded as one of the earliest “cross cultural” studios in the video game landscape. It was headed by the famed Mark Cerny, same man who ended up designing the PS4 and PS5 hardware. The idea was to take Sega’s best developers from Japan, the US, and Europe and combine them into a “Super Team” with their unique design philosophies melding into one to create great unique games.
Sonic 2 was the only title designed under Cerny and Kalinske’s original goals for the studio, with all members of the studio working on the game. After Sonic 2 was finished, Naka decided that the game wasn’t good enough because it had too many Western developers in the pipeline. He demanded that the sequel for Sonic be touched only by the Japanese members. If they didn’t concede to his demands, he threatened he would go back to Japan and possibly leave Sega.
In what would become a recurring situation for Sega in regards to his demands, they basically gave him everything he wanted. The Japanese members were given their own exclusive wing that required key card access. The American developers at STI (outside of the sound crew, who were mostly American) were forbidden from accessing the game unless Naka gave permission. Any ideas they had were thrown in the trash by Naka and he barely spoke with any of them during Sonic 3’s two year development. He basically took over the studio. I don’t think Cerny has ever stated why he left STI, but I feel like Naka’s arrogance had to have played a role.
In the end, STI became two studios. The american team would develop Sonic Spinball and later on Comix Zone. The Japanese team did Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles. After that, Naka and his team packed their bags and headed back to Japan where they rejoined (and subsequently took over in what was basically a coup de tat) Sonic Team, which had developed Sonic CD without Naka. Then they started working on Nights, which was going to be his magnum opus.
The dream of a cross cultural studio died with Sonic 3’s early development. And that was mostly Naka’s fault.
Re: Yuji Naka Killed "Dreamcast's Star Fox", Says Former Sega Producer
@Poodlestargenerica
Like another poster said earlier, Naka was never a good game designer. Other members of his team specialized at that role.
His genius and expertise was in programming, especially in assembly languages. The man was a whiz kid with the Zilog Z80 and the Motorola 68000, along with their support chips. The titles he programmed were usually titans in the 8bit and 16bit industry. Especially his physics solutions. That is where he shined. Sonic’s momentum based physics were a game changer in 1991.
People credit him with Sonic, but he actually didn’t have that much to do with the character’s design, artwork, or backstory. Naka’s contribution to the character was designing the engine that powered the Hedgehog’s game. Sonic played like nothing else on the market, thanks primarily to its unique physics system.
Re: Yuji Naka Killed "Dreamcast's Star Fox", Says Former Sega Producer
@farrgazer
That wasn’t the US team’s decision. Kalinske was aiming for a September launch when they would have around 12 to 14 launch titles ready.
His decision was overruled by Hayao Nakayama, SOJ CEO. Nakayama wanted to beat Sony to market by four months. Kalinske tried to talk sense in Nakayama and he had high hopes he could change his mind since Nakayama had always sided with Kalinske when the other SOJ upper officers formed coalitions to try and overrule Kalinske. Other members of SOA didn’t have that much faith anymore and started jumping ship to Sony or getting out of the hardware business entirely.
But this time he didn’t change his mind and go with Tom’s plans. He had made up his mind and he put his foot down. Kalinske was given two choices; launch early or resign. He chose to bend to Nakayama’s knee because he still had hope that the SOA team could turn things around after the early launch. But by that point the exodus of talent out of SOA had become an avalanche. He lost the team that built the Genesis to its success almost to a man and woman.
Re: Yuji Naka Killed "Dreamcast's Star Fox", Says Former Sega Producer
@Madao
Naka was a genius during the 8-bit and 16-bit eras. He pushed the Master System and the Genesis to their breaking points with his games.
But his central issue was his lack of foresight as the industry transitioned, his grade-A egotistical megalomania, and his outright hatred of his American counterparts at Sega. The dude was a dick. Plain and simple. And he refused to evolve as time went on.
It’s a shame how it all turned out.
Re: Yuji Naka Killed "Dreamcast's Star Fox", Says Former Sega Producer
That sounds like Naka. He was a genius programmer (Phantasy Star for the Master System was a work of art in programming terms), but he was a grade-A jerk who thought his dumps didn’t stink. He was a terrible team player at Sega. The Sonic Xtreme team built one of their early prototypes in a modified beta Nights engine. Naka saw it, threw one of the most legendary fits in Sega history, and had it completely stripped from them. Despite working for the same company, he wouldn’t allow them to use a modified Nights engine for their Sonic game.
Actions like that killed Sega’s console ambitions, because a bunch of people in Sega’s key positions around the company were egotistical maniacs. They were the complete opposite of Nintendo’s internal teams, who often worked together on projects and shared game engines and technical solutions to complex problems. Most of Sega’s teams worked completely alone and threw fits when people in other teams (especially if they were an American team) asked for assistance or if they could use some of their tech solutions.
Re: Random: Game Boy WiFi Cartridge Lets You Browse Wikipedia On A Pea-Soup Screen
@Silly_G
I never had that. The DS cart was the software and the GBA cart was extra ram right?
Re: Random: While We Wait For A New F-Zero, This ZX Spectrum 'Port' Will Have To Do
@Yosher
Hasn’t Captain Falcon been in more Super Smash Bros. titles than F-Zero titles now with Ultimate out?
Re: We're Getting A New Shining Force Game, But Of Course There's A Catch
@ShadowofTwilight22
The emulation community has made some good progress with Saturn emulation in the past few years. It’s still not fantastic but commercial games are playable at semi decent performance now.
Sega could tap into that talent to rerelease some Saturn gems. With some financial backing and larger work teams I bet the Saturns weird architecture could be conquered.
Re: The Real Story Behind Rare's Cancelled GoldenEye 007 Remaster
@liveswired
Nintendo owns the source code.
That’s why Nintendo is just as important in this as MGM, EON, and Rare/Microsoft. They all own a piece of this Brosnan pie.
Re: Feature: The Haunting History Of Capcom's Ghosts 'n Goblins Series
Ironically the only version of the Ghouls and Ghosts I ever owned was the Sega Genesis version. I never owned the SNES version.