Yuji Naka is convicted of using confidential information but will avoid jail

During the last year we have told you how Yuji Naka, well-known co-creator of sonichas been embroiled in a case of use of confidential information during the time in which he worked for Square Enix in Balan Wonderworld. The sentence confirms that Naka is guilty of this crime but for the moment he avoids going to jail.

Naka was arrested -along with other people- last November for buying shares of studios that were involved in the development of mobile games for Dragon Quest and final fantasy, before their official announcements. He himself admitted this fact during the trial: “There is no doubt that he knew this information about video games before they were made public and bought shares”, declared. In June the prosecution asked for two and a half years in jail.

The verdict has confirmed the two and a half years in prison and four years of probation. However, that does not mean that you will be jailed, at least if during these four years you do not commit any violations that break probation. He has also been fined for a total of 173 million yen -1.1 million euros.

Yuji Naka has been sentenced to 2 years, 6 months prison, suspended for 4 years, with two fines of ~2M & ~170M🇯🇵 https://t.co/Q12fLtiYN1 GSK | https://cohost.org/gosokkyu (@gosokkyu) July 7, 2023

Naka was a very important piece of Sega in the 90s

Yuji Naka was the only one arrested during the operation, which also affected Taisuke Sazaki, a former Square Enix employee, but Naka has been one of the best-known Japanese creators during the 90s thanks to chairing the Sonic Team until 2006; worked in multiple sonic, Nights into Dreams (nineteen ninety six), burning rangers (1998), sonic adventure (1998) and Fantasy Star Online.