Yuji Naka Retires (probably)

I guess Balan really was his last chance. If he truly is retiring, it's kinda sad that the failure of that game might be the reason why.

 

His later career might have been hit or miss but let us never forget the genius programming skills of Naka that allowed for Sonic to be created in the first place.

It sucks that this is how it ends, with a whimper and not a bang, but when I was a kid he was on the same level as Miyamoto in terms of game developers that I admired. I hope he enjoys his retirement. He's earned it and I will never forget what you did for us and how you changed gaming forever with a little rolling physics mechanic you made in your spare time. Thank you, Naka.

 

Oof, this is sad.
I hope he'll eventually reconsider, Balan might've been bad but Naka can make great games when he wants to. It would be a shame to let his career end on such a sour note.

 

He made nice things, and now he's retiring. So fucking fed up with this BS. :/ Leave the people alone dammit and give this man some work.

 

Oh great, now I get to hear everyone who was dunking on Balan feel bad about it.

 

This is sad to hear. Yuji Naka created my favorite video games of all time. With other talented collaborators he helped shape Sonic into something great. He will always have my respect for that.

I'd hope his career doesn't go out with the whimper that is Balan Wonderworld.

 

I'm not crying, you're crying.

Wishing him all the best.

 

Unfortunately, I'm probably gonna hear the opposite. Know some people and seen comments about how he should retire because he's supposedly incapable of making a good game, all just because of Balan (age might be factor too, but considering Miyamoto is 68 and still going...).
I think he should have at least one more go at making a game. At least retire on a more positive note. I know that won't erase Balan from people's minds, but still. But if not, I still wish him the best and thank him for giving us some great games.

 

I respect the man a ton for what he's done, but his output has been very hit or miss since he left Sega.
So this is probably for thr best.

Wish he could have had a better game to go out on besides Balan though.

 

Man has a wife, two kids, and a professional legacy most of us could never dream of. Let him have his life.

 

I want to feel bad for him, but like, I just kinda don't. The situation sucks. He may not have been alone digging his grave, but until/if we get more details on the situation, it appears that he dug the deepest. SquareEnix gave him a pretty good shot, and enable him to reunite with Naoto Ohshima, but as far as I can tell it was Naka himself who generated the bulk of the problems. The designs and worldbuilding for Balan Wonderworld were bright and fun, making it look like an honest return to form. The simplistic gameplay philosophy could have worked had he fought for it to remain as a mobile title like he had initially envisioned. Of course we don't really know if he fought for that or not, or if he readily acquiesced to making it for consoles/pc. The control scheme designed for the mobile version was never going to be well-suited for consoles, yet seemingly no effort was made to address that. If he needed more time to re-tool his vision at that early stage, I don't doubt that SquareEnix would've given it to him. They gave the game a fighting chance with all their promotion, but as others have already noted it was already too late to fix much of anything after the lackluster reception to the demo. SE would've had to adjust their promotional push siginificantly for a delay, and at that late stage there'd be wasn't much reason to believe a delay could have salvaged it.

It does suck that what may have been his last big shot just fizzled away, but as of now it doesn't look like he was helping himself. Still, I'm not taking this to mean he's completely lost his way. Hopefully he'll find a new gig and show us that he still has some magic left in him.

 

If he does retire it's too bad people trick themselves into thinking his last game was a bad game. Oh well. People are stupid.

 

I mean I found enjoyment out of it but at best that game was incredibly flawed and to say otherwise is just being in denial.

Pretty good soundtrack and very NiGHTs esq designs though, but that's prob more Oshima than Naka

 

Echoing the well wishes. Also, I must say that he looks fantastic for his age.

 

Too true. Asiatic ageing strikes again

 

I wish him well.

I don't think this retirement will be permanent. It might take awhile, I could see him taking a long time off even, but I have a feeling Balan won't end up being the last thing he ever produces. It's probably the "probably" in his statement lol.

Mostly I'm looking forward to more Naka interviews. He's an interesting guy.

 

I do think it is a bit disrespectful to make it all about Balan. The man's been around since the 80s and has arguably done worse than his promising yet flawed recent work anyway - but that's not the point. Naka is leaving behind a monumental legacy and we shouldn't begrudge him anything if he is taking his leave.

 

This setback shouldn't affect his legacy, so long as he bounces back from this. Even if his career does end on this dud, that doesn't negate the monumental franchises he had a hand in introducing to the world. Not sure how it is even remotely disrespectful to focus on Balan though, since it is the dud that got him to leave SquareEnix not even a month following its release.

 

Sad the hear that the career of a creator I idolized as a kid is possibly ending on a sour note. I hope he reconsiders, but if not I don't blame him, especially considering the current climate.

Whatever he decides to do in the end, I wish him the best of luck.