In Kikizo’s recent interview, the former Sonic Team president discusses leaving (and returning to) Sega, founding Prope, his upcoming character-based action game, and ancient, unanswered Sonic secrets. Here’s an excerpt:
Kikizo: How do you now reflect on Sega deciding to leave the hardware business?
Naka: I was very much against Sega ceasing to develop hardware, and I think at the time Phantasy Star Online was just about to come out. Okawa-san, who was the head of Sega at the time, said that the networked approach to gaming was something we should pursue, and so that game was developed with that concept fully in mind. At the time, internet infrastructure wasn’t really up to the standards it is now; not everybody was even online, whereas now, everyone’s got it. Chu Chu Rocket was released as a test to see what was possible, and as a result of that we subsequently developed Phantasy Star Online. But yeah, until the very final moments, I was really against Sega leaving the hardware business. In a way I feel that, had that decision not been made, Sega would have gone bankrupt – so maybe it was a good business decision. But at the same time, I also feel like, what the hell – we should have given it a go, and we should have taken that risk. But that is just my personal opinion, because I really enjoyed the hardware side of things at Sega.
Read the full interview here: http://games.kikizo.com/features/yuji-n … 009-p1.asp