According to recent reports,Sonic the Hedgehogco-creator Yuji Naka has been indicted on charges of insider trading. For those who don’t know, Yuji Naka is a Japanese video game programmer and designer whose career in video games began in 1984 when he joined Sega. He was put to work on arcade games, but he soon transitioned to working on Sega’s Master System console. In 1991, Naka was tasked with creating a game that could compete with Nintendo’sSuper Mario World. Naka and his team accepted the challenge and came up withSonic the Hedgehog,which quickly became a global phenomenonthanks to its fast-paced gameplay and iconic characters.
In 2018,Naka announced that he was joining Square Enix, a Japanese game development firm best known for its work on theFinal Fantasygame series. However, in November 2022, it was reported that Naka and two other Square Enix employees were arrested by Tokyo police on charges of insider trading. Naka and the other suspects reportedly bought shares in developer Aiming Co in 2020, shortly ahead of the announcement that the company was working on a newDragon Questgame. Authorities believe that they may have used insider information to make their investment.
RELATED:Sonic Co-Creator Yuji Naka Arrested for Alleged Insider Trading
Naka was re-arrested in December 2022for the same case, and it seemed as if the investigations against him were really picking up speed by that point. Now, it has been reported that the Tokyo police have completed their investigations and found that Naka was in possession of confidential information regarding Square Enix’s plans to make aFinal Fantasyspin-off,Final Fantasy 7: The First Soldier, in collaboration with mobile developer ATeam Entertainment. Naka is said to have used this information to purchase $834,000 worth of company stock, knowing that the value would increase because of the unannounced game project.
Another one of the accused Square Enix employees, Sasaki, is also said to have purchased $787,318 worth of company stocks. This wouldn’t be the first time that game industry insiders were caught using privileged information to make a quick buck. Back in March,three people were accused of investing over 100 million dollars in Activision Blizzardjust before Microsoft made its acquisition announcement.
The current status of when Naka or Sasaki will stand trial is still unresolved, but time will eventually provide answers to the questions left open. How this story plays out will have a significant effect onSonic the Hedgehogco-creator Naka’s future career prospects, so the wait to see what happens next is nerve-wracking for all parties involved.
