Authorities are cracking down on Square Enix employees following allegations of insider trading. The Tokyo Prosecutor's Office has arrested three former Square Enix workers, claiming that they used insider knowledge to invest in a gaming studio prior to the public reveal of their latest project. Reportedly, Fumiaki Suzuki, Taisuke Sasaki, and Yuji Naka, the latter known as the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, had insider information on an upcoming mobile game, Dragon Quest Tact, and used it to heavily invest in stock shares of the developer, Aiming Co., prior to the official announcement.

Square Enix released a statement on the matter, saying that they are currently working with the police in their investigation to "clarify the facts", while also taking disciplinary action against the accused employees. According to Japanese media outlets, Naka purchased around 10,000 shares of Aiming for 2.8 million yen total, while Sasaki and and Suzuki bought a combined 162,000 shares at about 47.2 million yen.

Source

 

[MarkDarkness]

Not only is Naka a talentless hack who never made a good game, he is also a criminal... wow.

 

[Luke94]

Not only is Naka a talentless hack who never made a good game, he is also a criminal... wow.

Sonic the Hedgehog/Sonic 1 and Sonic the Hedgehog 2/Sonic 2 were cool videogames that I used to be playing myself when I was a kid.

 

[Ryab]

Why don't the arrest the members of the Merican government for insider trading?

Because our gov't is corrupt on every side. Money commonly makes it so you can get away with crimes.

 

[Luke94]

Because our gov't is corrupt on every side. Money commonly makes it so you can get away with crimes.

Power corrupts is corrupting,right?
Japanese(Asian)Judas.

 

[Knightsurfer]

I don't get why this is a law to begin with if i'm honest.

if it's before the fact instead of after the fact it's still just making an estimate.

 

[Sheimi]

Sonic forces Naka to commit insider trading

 

[tech3475]

So.....no Balan Wonderworld 2 then?

 

[chrisrlink]

whats really screwed up is Japan's defamation law even if you defame someone (even if it's true) you could be charged/sued US law states only if it's a lie can you get sued the only way out of a lawsuit over defaming someone in Japan is if it's in the public's interest (more like whistle blowing) anyways this sucks and i hope the sonic franchise doesn't die (or goes through the shit chute any more at least)

 

[Foxi4]

whats really screwed up is Japan's defamation law even if you defame someone (even if it's true) you could be charged/sued US law states only if it's a lie can you get sued the only way out of a lawsuit over defaming someone in Japan is if it's in the public's interest (more like whistle blowing) anyways this sucks and i hope the sonic franchise doesn't die (or goes through the shit chute any more at least)

Naka doesn’t work on Sonic anymore - he quit Sega and started his own venture, the result of which was Balan. He hasn’t been a part of Sega since 2006.

I don't get why this is a law to begin with if i'm honest.

if it's before the fact instead of after the fact it's still just making an estimate.

It’s an unfair advantage, but you’re not wrong - you’re still betting on the result being advantageous, but you don’t have certainty. There are other forms of insider trading that offer far more definite gains.

 

[tabzer]

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Authorities are cracking down on Square Enix employees following allegations of insider trading. The Tokyo Prosecutor's Office has arrested three former Square Enix workers, claiming that they used insider knowledge to invest in a gaming studio prior to the public reveal of their latest project. Reportedly, Fumiaki Suzuki, Taisuke Sasaki, and Yuji Naka, the latter known as the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, had insider information on an upcoming mobile game, Dragon Quest Tact, and used it to heavily invest in stock shares of the developer, Aiming Co., prior to the official announcement.

Square Enix released a statement on the matter, saying that they are currently working with the police in their investigation to "clarify the facts", while also taking disciplinary action against the accused employees. According to Japanese media outlets, Naka purchased around 10,000 shares of Aiming for 2.8 million yen total, while Sasaki and and Suzuki bought a combined 162,000 shares at about 47.2 million yen.

Source

Cool. Now do politicians.

 

[nowthatweareseparated]

This whole thing is funny as fuck, I only know what Balan Wonderworld is bc of that video of somebody screaming and laughing hysterically at one of the shitty dance sequences and the fact the game failed to sell over 2,000 copies in it's first week in Japan. Balan is an anomaly, I can see why Yuji did what he did.

 

[HinaNaru Cutie]

wait wha? - ....lol h..wow this escalated real quick, man loses his entire project from being worked on correctly - balan wonderland, because square said screw you to him even though he's made it clear that he doesn't know how to do the job they assigned him on - squares fault, he then goes on twitter discussing about stuff that he couldn't do because of the contract he had which is very shady stuff if you really think about it, nonetheless he called out square enix tactic being against the gaming group and for just being straight corporation which is darn right true..- then this occurs..i..what the heck was this guy even thinking? what went on in his mind that *this* was a great idea?
you could have done what the creator of mega man did - go indie, create your own series - like you didn't need square after years passed by at all, could have done a gofundme or donation type websites for indie developers and started your passion project with the folks that want to join with you - it wasn't hard for the creator of mega man going that road at all.
he's freaking making a really great platform type mega man game out there - azula gunvolt series, this is just sad.

 

[isoboy]

The real crime was the games they made along the way.

 

[HarveyHouston]

how could it be a set up? people who do inside trading very knew what they doing. white collar criminals are smarter people then your average criminal Joe.

I mean he created Sonic. the biggest con in gaming history.

There could still be very much more than meets the eye. We don't know what all goes on behind locked doors!

 

[smf]

I don't get why this is a law to begin with if i'm honest.

if it's before the fact instead of after the fact it's still just making an estimate.

It's because if they didn't punish it, then everyone would do it and the stock market would be crippled.

 

[Janschi]

Why don't the arrest the members of the Merican government for insider trading?

Because it is different. German government politicians did the same with companies they had deals with during covid! But god forbid if a "normal" person does this. Naka is rich, but probably didn't offer none or not enough bribe to his politicians.

Stuff like that is making me sick.

Fricken Uli Hoeneß (a former professional soccer player) was caught doing tax evasion for about 30 Million USD. Then turned himself in. Later that year our sooo great channelor miss Merkel sat next to him during a soccer game and having interactions with him during the trial... Let that sink in.

 

[tianchris]

Seriously 2.8 million yen that's like 20k usd. Did he really poor enough to risk jail just for that? How much did square enix pay for someone like Yuji Naka?

 

[2DSGamerdude]

LOL, does this mean that {Sonic the Heigehog series} is fucked???,
i mean if he's the co-funder/creator of the series & he's arrested or whatever, what'll happen to the series?
it'll go down the toilet?

lol, it seems that he really wanted that {DQ XII} or whatever DQ info so badly that he broke dem rules to get it,
even investing a ton of money into it.

good thing forntiers came out beofre shit like this happened, cause if this happened before frontiers came out then it'd probably hurt it's sales etc.

 

[SylverReZ]

LOL, does this mean that {Sonic the Heigehog series} is fucked???,

Senic the Hodgeheg

 

[2DSGamerdude]

Senic the Hodgeheg

yeah, HAHAHA. i wonder why he did this tho??