Kojima's so good at what he does that he only needs one lifetime to get his second lifetime achievement award. Word has just gone out that living legend Hideo Kojima will be given this high distinction at the 2009 Game Developers Choice Awards.

It looks like Sonic the Hedgehog creator Yuji Naka's new development studio Prope is in full swing. The studio, along with Sega, has just released a little teaser image for their new Wii game.

Sega programmers/designers. He now heads a new game developing studio, Prope">Yuji Naka, video game programmer and designer mostly known for his efforts in NiGHTS and Sonic, is now heading a new studio called PROPE Ltd. It is being partially funded by Sega and is currently 37-man strong.

We learned today that the well-respected designer is working on a new Wii game, with details yet to be revealed. More on this story after the jump!

Given that gaming magazines like GameReactor appear to be confirming that a new NiGHTS game is under development for the Nintendo Wii, it leaves more questions to be asked.

For one, who will be taking the helm of this Sega classic? We reported earlier that PROPE's Yuji Naka, who handled NiGHTS' original Saturn console release, said he was not interested in revisiting his old Sega products.

With him out of the picture, we pick up word by way of Spong that Sega appears to be handing the new NiGHTS game's ongoing development to AM8's (Sonic Team's designation under Sega) American chapter, whose headquarters is at Townsend Street, San Francisco.

It may not exactly be Naka-san who will be handling the new game, but Sega fans may find refuge in knowing that (part of) NiGHTS' original developers will be taking the lead. Of course, we'll just have to wait for further details on this matter, which should not be too long with April just around the corner.

Sonic Team, a group of Sega programmers/designers. He now heads a new game developing studio, Prope">Yuji Naka has been pretty quiet since leaving Sega's Sonic Team to form Prope last year. The legendary game designer, whose credits include the original Sonic the Hedgehog, NiGHTS, and the Phantasy Star series, finally talked about life after Sonic in a recent interview with CVG. Here are a few snippets:

Leaving Sega. "Well, there's a support program at Sega for game designers who want to go independent, and my feelings about this program were the same as Sega's," Naka explained "Sega wanted me to be the first of their game creators to get involved with this program - to act as my business partner and co-operate with Prope."

Exclusives or multiplatform titles? "For each project, we'll consider which formats are best suited to what we're trying to achieve. But we really want as many players as possible to enjoy our games, so we're not going to limit ourselves to one format or one manufacturer."

Apart from saying that he currently has no plans of revisiting any of his old Sega properties (NiGHTS, for one, is reportedly making the jump to the Nintendo Wii), Naka declined to reveal more details on what Prope is currently working on. It's sure to be an original IP, though, as Naka also said in the interview that they "only want to create original entertainment."

NiGHTS into Dreams, or just NiGHTS, is being rumored for some time to make a come back on Wii. Even video game online site Spong mentioned the other day that the new title has been confirmed 100% to them by both Nintendo and Sega.

Everything good now? Well, not exactly, especially after another site, CVG, has spoken with game creator Yuji Naka. According to Naka, who was sober during the short talk, he is not interested to re-visit his old Sega properties. His exact words were, "At present, I have no such intentions."

Yuji Naka left Sega around more than a year ago and started his own game development studio PROPE. Quite curiously, PROPE's initial capital was somewhere around 10 million Yen or roughly around US$ 84.69 million. 10% of this capital came from Sega, giving them a "first dibs" option to publish games developed by PROPE.

NiGHTS into Dreams was originally launched in 1996, alongside more popular video game titles Super Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot. Sega recently had a community poll in its official website regarding old games fans would like to see return. As expected, NiGHTS was the popular choice.