Former Sega and Square Enix developer Yuji Naka could face a prison term of two years and six months in relation to the insider trading trial held in Tokyo, Japan, as reported by denfaminicogamer (thanks, Time Extension).
In addition, Naka may be fined 2.5 million JPY along with a surcharge of 170 million JPY. He, along with two former Square Enix employees, Taisuke Sazaki and Fumiaki Suzuki, had been accused of purchasing shares in developers Aiming and Ateam based on information not yet made public regarding the free-to-play mobile games Dragon Quest Tact and Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier. The three suspects had intended to sell their stock in each company once the respective games were publicly announced.
The prosecution stated that the suspects had "gained unfair profits from a significantly more advantageous position than general investors, and undermined the fairness of the market". To counteract this, the defense claimed that they "did not actively browse insider information", seeking leniency and a reduction in both fines and surcharges.
Naka's upcoming final sentence on July 7th, 2023 will presumably mark the end of a lengthy legal process that started back in November 2022. Prior to this, the developer had gained a notable reputation during his time at Sega, during which he helped spearhead the creation of the company's most famous mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog. Since leaving Sega, he created his own studio, Prope, and made a number of games for the Wii and 3DS.
Most recently, he joined Square Enix to create the subsidiary brand Balan Company and subsequently directed the much-maligned Balan Wonderworld. After its release, Naka claimed he was removed as the game's director prior to launch and moved to file a lawsuit against Square Enix.
What do you make of this story? Share your thoughts in a comment down below.
[source news.denfaminicogamer.jp, via timeextension.com]
Comments 54
How the mighty has fallen. That’s the end of his career.
Yes, Balan Wonderland was that bad and this is a fitting punishment.
I don't know what's worse, losing your career and going to prison. Or losing your career and going to prison after Balan Wonderworld was your last project.
And that's his career in Japan done. They don't take prison sentences lightly.
90s Nintendo fans be like...
Ehm, I don't think he's actually been sentenced yet? The new articles all state that it's due to be finalised on the 7th July.
man, feels kinda rough. Insider trading is the daily bread for US politicians lol. if this was the west i dont imagine such a harsh sentence. But insider trading is insider trading...
@Phillips455 Yep, you're right, thanks - updated to reflect.
Well...
Prisoner, prisoner
Locked up, can't get you off my mind, off my mind
Lord knows I tried a million times, million times
Oh-whoa, why can't you
Why can't you just let me go?
@gcunit "Fist Punch Emoji" (I would insert one but I am old and don't know how)
He must have been a bad boy to get convicted of something that happens every day of the week.
Insider Trading isn't actually the problem, they just hated Balan Wonderworld that much
Can we bring back capital punishment for Balan Wonderland?
Still feels surreal that all of this was tempted by two mobile gachas one of which - the one with comparatively MORE worldwide brand recognition at that! - went belly up even before the investigation. I hold Balan Wonderworld in astronomically higher regard than is fashionable in the collective gamer asylum (EDIT: not high enough to spellcheck the keyboard autoprompter's pranks in its regard, I guess😅), but stuff like this can compel you to wonder if Naka-sensei would have been better off never crossing paths with Squeenix in the first place.🙄😅
@jump @ironcore ah, certified fan jokes👌
He's a hack but that's a bit harsh... Oh, for money laundering. Nvm
Ok Balan wasn't that great but this is harsh
Wow! Balan was so bad it literally wasn’t legal.
My brains first reaction to this headline was along the lines “Baland Wonderland was definitively a criminal act that deserves jail time”.
I do know it’s not about that, but I am still kinda chuckling at the thought.
Looking back through the comments, I’m obviously not alone.
Gotta go fast! To jail!
What does the 170m surcharge mean? Is that an additional fine?
Not to be flippant about money, but 2.5m Yen for the main fine isn’t as much as it sounds - it’s “only” £14,365. That’s like the cost of a family car or large van.
@gaga64 I assume that is the money he made, or thereabouts, on the trading scheme. 170M JPY to dollars is a lot - but not unknowable wealth. About 1.2M USD. I think USD and the Euro are about on par now.
Like the saying goes can't do the time don't do the Crime.
@WiiWouldLikeToPlay Well. Going to prison typically results in losing your career so he'd have lost his career anyway. He'll be lucky if he can get any employment afterward. Especially in Japan.
When he's being taken to prison, via helicopter, he'll escape and roll around at the speed of sound, then he'll find the true criminal (Naoto Ohshima) who framed him before being taken for real to prison (island), which will blow up a little after his arrival.
I'm sure Naka will be fine.
GAME OVER YEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHH! cymbal crash
what a joke. the idea that you can only make money trading stocks if its a "pure" gamble, taking no personal advantages, is a fantasy.
why then, does the slot machine keep paying out for the same handful of people, over and over? i call bs.
@FragRed He should try American politics. He can get away with A LOT!
@smithyo Really? Plenty of people have been jailed for insider trading in "the west"... remember Enron? Maximum sentence in the US is 20 years.
Idc what he did I still love the man for bringing us Sonic. I suppose if he did do the crime he should do the time but idk I think no less than him. He benefited the world more than he has hurt it.
@jump Did you play through all of Balan?
@scottishwildcat Martha Stewart did this and got less jail time.
I think Enron was more pyramid scheme/fraud on an insane scale if I remember right
It's all starting to finally catch up to him. I've never liked Yuji Naka as a person, despite his accomplishments in the industry. He's often credited as the "creator of Sonic," but Naoto Oshima was the one that designed Sonic as a hedgehog and Hirokazu Yasuhara was the one that designed all the levels of the first game.
He was so butt-hurt about not getting the credit he felt he deserved for the idea, that he actually left SEGA to join Mark Cerny at the American branch to make Sonic 2. The artist for Sonic 2, Craig Stitt described working with him. He said, "Naka was an arrogant pain in the ass."
So many people joking that Balan was so terrible that Yuji Naka is going to jail for it while I think I’m the only one that thought it was ok.
@Greatluigi ok? possibly
cause i honestly love the game
i call it a hidden gem, my biggest guilty pleasure
those who hate it
simply don't get the game
I know Japan’s legal system can be pretty strict, but two years sounds a bit harsh, especially for what is essentially a victimless crime. Hopefully they just fine him and let him be. The reception to Balan Wonderworld and these charges are enough to end his career, so he doesn’t deserve much more punishment than that.
Quite the fall from the top, eh? Like father, like son
I know the connection is faint but when Naka left Sega in 2006 is when the Sonic series started to fall apart (for me at least.)
In that sense I will always respect this guy for his involvement in my favorite games.
This error is dumb and embarrassing, but like, no one's dead or damaged. No harm no foul.
2 years is a bit excessive, though, since he is a family man, those kids will have a fractured childhood.
@outsider83 Over here in the U.K., our corrupt government I’m sure are already eyeing him up for a cabinet post.
The next lead in Like a Dragon confirmed!
I know the insider trading thing is bad, but with everything that happened to him ever since the Rodea days, I can't help but feel a bit sorry for the guy.
@FragRed And if he were to get caught. At the most, a possible… meme. Some viral, Twitter clips. 🤷🏿♂️ I’m talking about both of our countries! I peep what goes on, over there. It’s not an everyday. But I’ve seen enough to get the gist!
@jump It really wasn't, and it definitely isn't, joking or not. Incredibly cruel punishment in this day and age when people who have committed far worse crimes don't even see jail time, and Balan is a bit of a rough-hewn gem. I enjoyed it a good deal, and quite a few game developers and even some at Digital Foundry have found the game not at all without its charms and merits. Neat little game that comes together by the second level.
Anyone in that position without competent legal and financial (or ones that they actually listen to), shouldn't be in that position, and won't for long. It's easy to be stupid when you're broke, but if you got that kind of money, you better listen and take advice from the professionals. No pun intended, but it's literally not a game, or if you treat like one you better have some 1-Ups in your pocket.
People do what he did all the time. He must have been really bad at it or someone really had it out for him. But anyway it's really weird how much people are enjoying fantasizing about the misery he might be in for.
He lasted 10 years at Sega, I'm sure 2 years in prison is nothing to him. The dude will be out and making Balan 2 in no time.
@jump I hate the current state of the Paper Mario games but I wouldn't wish for Kensuke Tanabe to do something that would get charges pressed against him
@Impossibilium Well technically there are victims, those who invest and trade in stock (rich folk) were left at a disadvantage in the game of stocks, those rich folk have feelings and he hurt those feelings, screw the poor and it's fine, upset the rich and it's jail time!
It’s always the ones you most suspect
Man im sad how fallen this man got now he be remembered for that god awful Balan wonderworld game with so much potential but poorly executed.
He should of got a bigger fine and sentence for the release of Balan Wonderworld. It promised so much and then just dumped on everyone.
I think this whole series of events somewhat serve that that everyone who was calling him a jerk were right.
He's an arrogant, selfish person who may have been a very skilled programmer in the 90s. But is a terrible game designer, a glory hog who's responsible for Sonic's physics but acts like he designed the character. And instrumental in Sega's downfall a console company during the Saturn and Dreamcast era, being in denial while the Dreamcast was on its death spiral.
@Ironcore You can't bring something back, if it was never gone in the first place. I was pretty horrified when I learned that Japan still has the death penalty. That hanging is their preferred method of doing it didn't really help, either.
This is a pretty crappy end for Yuji Naka, though probably not unjust, but I love that every article concerning the criminal investigation against him has that photo of him in the Balan top hat. 😆
If someone feels sad for the guy, let me inform/remind you of this story:
Naka came to visit with his team to tour our studio [and] look at our tools and engine; we had a lot of proprietary [and] really phenomenal tech – I would say still to this day, [we had] some stuff that I haven't seen replicated quite at the level we had. [Naka] didn't realize that the people on my team, a lot of them spoke fluent Japanese, including my lead engineer. [Naka] started speaking in Japanese assuming that no one would understand; [he] started talking about what parts of our tech they were going take for Sonic and then basically said as soon as they ship, fire everyone but one of the engineers who knows their system and roll him onto our team for Sonic – and my team heard all that, so you can imagine how they felt. Naka was pretty powerful at Sega at that time.
So I had a group of five engineers that now knew what was potentially happening to their baby. They were, outside of [NFL2K and NBA2K studio] Visual Concepts, the only people in North America working on a 128-bit gaming console, [so it was] pretty easy to go get another job – so they did. I had to go to Bernie [and tell him] I just lost my five lead engineers and I've got a proprietary engine; even if I hire, I've got healthy burn rate... we were expensive title for that time... it was a lot of money [and] it was impossible to justify. It would have taken me two months to hire, another two months to ramp up... so [I've got] four months of burn rate where pretty much nothing's happening.
And yet ellen musk and most of the US government can do so without impunity?
Laws for us, not for them!
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