Yuji Naka has revealed that as of April of this year he will no longer work for Square Enix and may never work on games again, writing on Twitter via Google Translate, "I can't talk about the reasons now, but I hope I can when the time comes. As for my future activities, I may retire since I am 55 years old." He wrote.

Yuji Naka came up with the original smooth-scrolling platformer, the prototype for the first "Sonic the Hedgehog," which he programmed in 1991. As a programmer, producer, and designer, he worked on several Sega games, including "Phantasy Star," "Puyo Puyo Fever," and sequels to "Sonic" He founded his own studio, Prope, in 2006.

In 2018, Yuji Naka joined Square Enix as director of the 3D platformer Baran Wonder World, his first collaboration with Sonic co-creator Naoto Oshima since 1998's Sonic Adventure. Released in March of this year, the game received a muted response, even after a potentially seizure-inducing strobe effect was fixed. It is currently rated "Mixed" on Steam.