Yuji Naka, the game developer who created Sonic, admitted to insider trading during his time developing Balan Wonderworld with Square Enix.

Check out the original story for more context!

We originally found out back in December that the Sonic creator was charged for Insider Trading but we were yet to hear about any developments. That was until 2 March when this news came to fruition courtesy of DenFamiNico Gamer.

The story as we know is that Naka bought stocks of Ateam Entertainment Inc with the knowledge that new mobile games in the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy franchises would be announced shortly after. Insider trading is a big no-no, and it violates the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, which regulates securities laws and companies in Japan.

Basically, it makes sure everything is done on the up-and-up when it comes to stocks and shares.

When Naka was put on trial in the Tokyo District Court, he didn’t try to deny anything. In fact, he straight up said, “There is no doubt that I knew about the existence of these games before they were publically announced and bought stocks.”

If you don’t know who Naka is, he worked at SEGA for a long time, from 1984 to 2006. He’s pretty famous for creating Sonic the Hedgehog. The insider trading accusations against him first came up in November 2022 and then again in December of the same year.

Anyway, Balan Wonderworld is a game you can play on a bunch of different platforms: Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC.