Now that Sonic Origins has been released, former Sonic producer, Yuji Naka, has confirmed that Michael Jackson himself worked on some of the franchise’s soundtrack.
With Sonic Origins officially out in the wild, people have noticed a change to one of the game’s soundtracks in the remastered collection, Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Naka chimed in on Twitter and confirmed a longstanding rumour that Michael Jackson worked on the game’s soundtrack, according to VGC.
While Michael Jackson isn’t credited in the official game, rumours of his involvement have been going on for years. It seems to be a less of rumour now, as Naka has confirmed the celebrity’s involvement while reacting to Sega’s alteration to the game’s music in Sonic Origins. Naka who was a programmer on the original Sonic 3 even followed that up by posting a time when he took a picture while in Jackson’s helicopter on his way to the pop star’s house.
“Oh my god, the music for Sonic 3 has changed, even though SEGA Official uses Michael Jackson’s music,” Naka said in a tweet while reacting to Origins’ changes.
The debate about the late pop star’s involvement in the game dates back to 2006. During the early days of YouTube, user Qjimbo published a video showed off the similarities between songs featured in the original game and Jackson’s music, displaying that the melodies in both were very similar. The video wasn’t released for no reason.
The video was in response to a 2005 interview with former Sega Technical Institute director Roger Hector who claimed he was brought on to produce music for the game. This was following Jackson’s alleged sexual allegations and Jackson’s music for the game was erased. The version in the game is a recreated version of Jackson’s original Sonic 3 music which has seemingly been changed again for the Sonic Origins release.
This hasn’t been the first time that Naka has popped up in the news this year. Back in April, the former Sega programmer and producer revealed in a series of scathing tweets that he sued his other former employer, Square Enix, over his termination while he served as Balan Wonderworld‘s Director as development was still ongoing.
