Sonic the Hedgehog creator given suspended prison sentence and $1.2 million fine

Yuji Naka, the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison, as well as fines totaling $1.2 million, for his role in a 2020 insider trading.

This is reported by the Japanese news agency Ji press, Naka’s prison sentence is suspended for four years, meaning he will not serve a sentence as long as he adheres to the terms of his release and does not break the law again during this time. In suspending Naka’s sentence, the judge noted that he had shown remorse for his crime.

Naka, 57, was arrested twice on insider trading charges, first in November, again in December, on unrelated matters. Friday’s verdict covered both cases.

The first arrest involved a scheme to buy shares in developer Aiming in early 2020, based on inside information it would develop Dragon Quest Tactics, a mobile title. The project and Square Enix’s collaboration with Aiming were not public at the time, and Naka was working at Square Enix on the ill-fated platformer Balance Wonderworld.

In the second caseNaka and another Square Enix employee, Taisuke Sazaki, were accused of buying stock in Ateam, which developed the mobile spinoff Final Fantasy 7: The First Soldier. Again, the case alleges that Naka and Sazaki acted before the collaboration was made public. The two men are said to have made “hundreds of millions of yen” from the deal ($1 million US converts to more than ¥140 million).

Naka co-created Sega’s mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog, with artist Naoto Ohshima in the late 1990s. He left Sega in 2006 to go independent before joining Square Enix in 2018, where he teamed up again with Ohshima to Balance Wonderworld.

In an April 2022 interview, Naka revealed that he was removed Balance Wonderworld’s development six months ahead of its 2021 launch and sued Square Enix, though he didn’t reveal how that case was resolved. Naka left Square Enix about two months later Balance Wonderworld launched.