Yuji Naka, co-founder of the Sonic Team, and one of the most important individuals behind the creation of the gaming franchise Sonic the Hedgehog, will be sent to prison after trafficking information regarding two Battle Royal video games, which are currently unavailable in the market.
Last year, the Japanese man was arrested in November, being suspect of trafficking classified information about two games. The first one being the cellphone video game, Dragon Quest Tact. In addition, he was retained again in December for the same illegal activity. However, the second game involved in the situation was the free-to-play title Final Fantasy VII: THE FIRST SOLDIER.
According to official reports, Yuji Naka and Taisuke Sazaki used the confidential information related to the Final Fantasy game to acquire actions in ATeam Entertainment, which was the company behind the purchase of the video game project. Basically, both men got actions from the studio that created the video game, knowing that the value of the actions they had acquired would increase after the official launch of the titles. This was the same course of action the men did with the Battle Royal Game, Dragon Quest Tact.
Naka admitted the charges against him in March 2023. As of now, the Tokyo Court indicated that he will be sentenced to 2 years and half in prison, and is set to pay 2 fees, the first one for ¥2.5 million Japanese yens ($17,800 USD), and the second one for ¥170 million yens (about $1.21 million dollars).
