Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator Yuji Naka has been charged with insider trading over the illegal purchase of Final Fantasy stock.
Per Kotaku and first reported by NHK, the video game creator has been formally charged with insider trading after allegedly purchasing $1,080,000 in stocks for ATeam ahead of its announcement it would work on the Final Fantasy mobile game The First Soldier. The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has determined Naka profited from the inside information, which led to him making the purchase just ahead of ATeam's formal announcement about their upcoming project.
Sonic Creator's Legal Woes
Authorities arrested Naka earlier this month over the Final Fantasy case, despite The First Soldier's release over a year prior. At the time, reports alleged that Naka had purchased around 144.7 million yen, or over $1 million USD, for 120,000 shares in ATeam after receiving inside knowledge about The First Soldier. Reportedly, another former Square Enix employee, Taisuke Sasaki, was arrested with Naka over similar illegal share dealings. Before the arrest, Square Enix announced it would end service for The First Soldier less than a year after its release.
These charges came less than a month after police arrested Naka for another insider trading allegation after the Tokyo Prosecutors Office found evidence of a similar illegal shares purchasing scheme. In this case, Naka reportedly purchased 10,000 shares in developer Aiming's stock for about 2.8 million yen, or around $20,000 USD, after learning of a deal between it and Square Enix for a new Dragon Quest Tact mobile game. Although prosecutors allege they purchased the stock in anticipation of a jump in value, they've yet to confirm what profit, if any, Naka and Sasaki allegedly made.
Yuji Naka's Work at SEGA and Square Enix
After working at SEGA on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, Naka joined Square Enix in 2016. While there, he headed the creation of Balan Wonderworld, which was widely panned by fans and critics when it launched in 2021. Earlier in 2022, Naka claimed that Square Enix had rushed the game's production, forcing it to release before it was finished. In a lengthy Twitter thread, Naka explained the circumstances of the development and noted that the product delivered was not the game he'd intended to make. "Personally, I'm really sorry that I released the unfinished work Balan Wonderworld to the world," he said, according to a translated tweet.
Naka has not yet been charged for the Dragon Quest allegation.