Interview: Mike Fischer (VP/SOA Product Manager) – Sega-16
www.sega-16.com

Pretty fun and good length interview for those interested in 90s Sega. The highlight for most people seems to be the anecdote about Yuji Naka wanting Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg to be named “Giant Cock”, but there’s other good stories in there as well.

Mike Fischer: Yeah, I remember looking at the game. He wanted to call it Giant Eggs, and we’re like, “Well, to lay a big egg in the U.S. just means a failure.” Sega-16: True! Mike Fischer: If you look back, like eggs played an odd part in a lot of Naka-san’s content. It’s like, “What’s the obsession with eggs?” Anyway, one of the guys on my team said, “Well, let’s call it Billy Hatcher” because it’s a hatching game with a cute character. The main character is the the boy, not the egg. Of course, Naka-san hated it. We called it Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, which he still hated. We at one point – I promise you, I am not making up this story; I have two witnesses! At one point, he he visited the U.S. Sometimes, I translated, and sometimes other people translated. He goes, “Well, I know another name for the boy wearing a rooster suit. Another name for rooster is cock. Can we call the game Giant Cock in English?” Sega-16: Oh my god! I would have been half-tempted to agree, just to see what happened. Mike Fischer: I should have. He is literally the most miserable person I have ever worked with in games or anything else in my life, just a a horrible human being, and you can quote me on that. As you know, he’s also now also a convicted felon.