Former Sonic boss Yuji Naka re-arrested, as fresh insider trading allegations emerge
This time related to Final Fantasy.
Yuji Naka, the former boss of Sega's Sonic Team, has reportedly been re-arrested in Japan over fresh allegations of insider trading.
Japanese newspaper Asahi reported today that Naka now stands accused of violating financial laws in relation to another mobile game it is claimed he had insider knowledge of - Final Fantasy 7: The First Soldier.
Specifically, Naka is accused of purchasing 144.7m yen's worth of shares in its developer ATeam (worth around £865k) before The First Soldier was officially announced.
Last month, Naka was reportedly arrested for a similar charge, that time in relation to a Square Enix-published Dragon Quest mobile game.
Then, it was alleged Naka had purchased 2.8m yen's worth of shares in its developer Aiming (around £16.8k), prior to the company's involvement in the project becoming public knowledge.
Several others were reportedly arrested at the same time, including long-time Square Enix developer Taisuke Sazaki, who holds credits for his work on numerous Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts projects.
Eurogamer has contacted Square Enix for comment.
While most famous for his work on Sonic, Naka worked with Square Enix for a brief spell between 2019 and 2021, creating the underwhelming platformer Balan Wonderworld.
In April this year, Naka revealed he had sued Square Enix over his exit from the company, and accused the publisher of booting him off the project before it released Balan Wonderworld in an unfinished state.
Naka is yet to comment publicly on any of the above allegations.
As for The First Soldier, it's set to shutdown on 11th January 2023 - just over a year since it launched.