Pre-E3: Sonic's Naka Leaves Sega, Sets Up Prope

According to an official statement from major Japanese-headquartered publisher Sega, the company's head of development and Sonic creator Yuji Naka is leaving the company to form a new independent developer named Prope. The firm, which will create games with new IP, has 10% of its 10 million yen initial market capitalization provided by Sega, and is part of what the publisher claims is an overall scheme to help allow existing Sega developers to form independent companies. No further independent developer announcements have been made yet, and Prope, which officially forms on June 1st, has not announced any initial titles, but the company has set up a small official website which explains the developer's name. According to the site: ""PROPE" (pronounced "pro-pe") is a Latin word which 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."