Read on.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/

Yuji Naka, the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog and head of Sonic Team, has left SEGA to set up a new studio which will be partially funded by the publisher.

The studio has been named Prope - a Latin word which, according to the official website, means " beside" and " near future" .

" We named our company Prope in the hopes of bringing game entertainment much closer to users, establishing closer ties between users and us, and creating near future entertainment," the website reveals.

SEGA will provide 10 per cent of the studio' s startup capital, which is being launched as part of its program to support " Independent Game Creators." The publisher is also allowing Naka to take 10 members of Sonic Team with him.

There' s no word on whether the move will affect the development of the first next-gen Sonic game, currently in the pipeline for PS3 and Xbox 360 under Naka' s direction. Prope' s first projects also have yet to be revealed.

I never thought I' d see the day! 0.0

Sadly I saw this coming at some point. But at least it' s not a complete split/divorce.

I just chatted with yuji Naka he feelt it was the right choice and time to move on.

right, now they' re just freinds with benefits.
sigh... dissapointing in some manner, because now i' m deathly worried about sonic, but hopefully his new endeavor will turn out some quality stuff.

And maybe the next person to work on Sonic, (IF Sega doesn' t outsource the project(s) to Naka' s new company) can inject life into the series. Sonic Team' s previous 3D Sonic games came up a tad bit short...

How about Amusement Vision take a crack at it!?

The studio is independant but I believe is still partially owned by Sega. This is the beginning of a new restructuring of dev teams within the company, with teams being independant but still being part of Sega.

Basically they are going back to the ' Dreamcast Era' style where each team is owned by Sega but has creative control and self-funding, along with partial funding by the main company as well.

I guess this is to help extract the brilliance and creativity that Sega' s teams showed back a few years ago on the Dreamcast.

-----------------

Okay so not owned by Sega, as I first thought.

Still, at least they are working closely with Sega, and I' m willing to bet this is what the company partially meant when mentioning working with outside developers. Maybe more freedom and independent control is what these teams need to get back to making really great games again.

Maybe more freedom and independent control is what these teams need to get back to making really great games again.

That' s what they say they aim for - and it seems reasonable

I almost forgot to say that the name of Naka' s new company SUCKS. I give the name a D grade..

They should have instead named it, " Cinos Meat Entertainment."

Naka leaving Sonic Team is a little sad for me. He' s had his fare share of controvecy but he was 2nd in line to be Sega' s version of Shigeru Miyamoto. of course Sega has Yu Suzuki to fill that position but beign a hardcore Sonic fan Mr Naka has been number one for me.

Hopefully this doesn' t effect Sonic and Sonic Team games currently in the making.

Oh, and the name does suck.