Yuji Naka er bedst kendt som en af hovedskaberne bag Sonic the Hedgehog samt som grundlægger og Sega-studiet Sonic Team. Dog tilskrives selve skabelsen af karakterens design normalt Naoto Ohshima, og i de senere år har Naka været bedst kendt for tvivlsomme forretningsforbindelser, der næsten fik ham bag tremmer (selvom han til sidst fik en betinget dom på fire år, som han stadig afsoner).
Nu har en tidligere Sega-chef, Mike Fischer, i et interview kommenteret med Sega-16, hvordan det var at arbejde med Naka, og han leverer straks skarp kritik, hvor han opsummerer Sonic-skaberen således:
"He is literally the most miserable person I have ever worked with in games or anything else in my life, just a horrible human being, and you can quote me on that. As you know, he's also now also a convicted felon."
Fischer arbejdede i mange år hos Sega fordelt over to perioder og betragtes blandt andet som arkitekten bag den stealth-lancering af Sega Saturn, som ofte betragtes som en katastrofal fejl. Han forlod Sega i 1997, men gjorde comeback i 2001 efter Dreamcasten. Han hævder at have været vidne til, hvordan Yuji forsøgte at tage æren for andres arbejde og omskrive spilhistorien:
"I was there for the birth of Sonic the Hedgehog, and when the memo came out, they said to every employee, 'We want to come up with the new Mario-killer mascot character. We want everyone to come up with an idea.' I watched them pick the winners. I watched Yuji Naka steal credit for it."
Han giver et konkret eksempel i interviewet på, hvordan han mener, at Naka har taget genveje gennem sin karriere, og mener, at Ohshima, og muligvis også andre, burde have fået mere kredit for Sonic the Hedgehog:
"I saw [Naka] at one point get up on stage and receive a lifetime achievement award for creating Sonic the Hedgehog. I saw him give an interview where he talked about why he decided to make Sonic blue, and, as you know, he wasn't responsible for any of that. That was all [Naoto] Ohshima, and Ohshima-san is one of the most wonderful, kindhearted people you'll ever meet in your life.
The only reason that I agreed to talk to the guy who wrote Console Wars was because I wanted to set the record straight, and I'm really proud that it is now on the record... he just was so malignant in trying to rewrite history. You know that Ohshima-san worked on Blinx the Cat. When we had the Xbox One debut, he was there, and Naka-san was invited and refused to sit in the same row as Ohshima-san because he accused Ohshima-san of trying to steal his credit."
Næste år vil Naka igen være en fri mand. Hans seneste spil var Balan Wonderworld fra 2021, hvor Ohshima også var involveret. Det endte dog i et stort sammenbrud, og Naka blev fyret af Square Enix seks måneder før det blev færdigt. Om Naka nogensinde vender tilbage til spilindustrien, er stadig uklart.