Totally different game this time.
You might remember that Yuji Naka got arrested for insider trading in connection to Dragon Quest Tactics a while back. Well, it seems he didn’t just try to pull that trick with just one game. No no, as far as we currently know, he tried for a double.
Per Asahi, in this case, he used knowledge of the upcoming Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier to buy shares in the developer that was working on it with Square Enix, Ateam. Joining him in illegal trading this time was one Taisuke Sasaki (39). Sasaki is accused of purchasing 91,000 shares (~¥105 million) whereas Naka is said to have purchased 120,000 shares (~¥144.7 million). Sasaki passed the info on to a friend, who in turn bought 10,000 shares with the knowledge for ~¥11.8 million.
You might remember Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier as that FF7 battle royale game that Square Enix wisely thought should only be on mobile platforms. They announced the closure of the game servers in October; the game is still running, but will shut down entirely in January.
It should come as no surprise that the internet is having a field day with the news. A few I’ve personally liked:
It’s also worth noting that the news has apparently emboldened former employees to (anonymously, of course) speak out on his treatment of him and Arzest as a whole during Balan Wonderworld‘s development. And absolutely none of the accusations are surprising if you’re remotely familiar with his reputation.
There’s really no better way to leave it off than this tweet by @DiGi_Valentine:
That said, as a post script, it is darkly humorous that Yuji Naka gets arrested around the time one of the best Sonic games in a decade comes out.
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