NiGHTS producer photoshops co-creator out of anniversary photo

metro.co.uk:

An anniversary celebration for NiGHTS has been undercut by producer Yuji Naka cropping out the game’s co-creator from an old photo.

One word that can be used to describe Sonic The Hedgehog creator Yuji Naka is ‘blunt’. Unlike some names in the industry, Naka isn’t afraid to air his feelings on social media.

This past year alone, he casually dropped the bombshell that the rumours of Michael Jackson working on Sonic The Hedgehog 3’s soundtrack were true and revealed that he had sued Square Enix over Balan Wonderworld’s poor quality.

Now, in an act so petty that it borders on cartoonish, Naka has celebrated the anniversary of NiGHTS Into Dreams by shunning his former colleague and NiGHTS co-creator Naoto Ohshima.

At first, Naka’s celebration message seems innocuous enough. He simply shared a photo taken 26 years ago at a Sega Saturn software presentation, where NiGHTS was announced.

Except when you look at the bottom left, you can see he’s scribbled somebody out of the picture, making it look like a miniature Darth Vader was in attendance.

Fans on social media quickly realised that it was Ohshima who was cropped out, which really undermines the whole celebratory feeling Naka’s message is trying to achieve.

While Naka and Ohshima collaborated on both NiGHTS and the Sonic series at Sega, before reuniting to make Balan Wonderworld, it seems their professional and personal relationship has since seen a turn for the worst.

When Naka discussed his lawsuit against Square Enix, he also blamed Ohshima for being one of the people responsible for removing him as director midway through development.

Ohshima is the executive vice president of Arzest, which co-developed Balan Wonderworld alongside Square Enix. Apparently, Ohshima had told Square