I have to say I’m both relieved and a bit disappointed if it is fake. I looked the story up again after I posted that comment yesterday and one thing that really didn’t jive with me was the idea that Sega would retaliate against someone simply for developing for Nintendo. If this were the Mega Drive vs SFC days, this would be such a common occurrence they’d have to kidnap someone once a week. It’s not like Square moving over to PS1.
I think when one really gets into the weeds of what the anonymous source says happened, it all starts to make much less sense altogether - first it's "I smashed up an arcade machine outside of their corporate headquarters", then it's "I don't have a drivers licence so I got my friend to dump it", then "Said friend simply dumped the machine from a crane outside their building without me being there to smash it up myself (it was still probably quite damaged though)". And I wouldn't even know where to begin with their additional dubious claims that yakuza-affiliated members of Sega's old board of directors had fingers cut off. It's as if they don't even know that many photos of them exist!
Okay, that number is a good bit higher. I did not want to see Naka go down for $20,000 USD but I can live with $834,000 lol. It also makes the initial arrest make more sense considering the small figure if they planned on charging him for both. Though I would imagine they'd have waited so maybe it did just emerge after the first arrest.
He was halfway through Metal Harbor but couldn't use the light dash because he only believes in one button control schemes.
It can't be a coincidence that Naka was arrested shortly after Sonic Frontiers used every button on a controller rather than a one-button layout
And so the saga continues. According to an anonymous developer via Yahoo News Japan today, Naka apparently wanted Balan to have a 1-2 month delay for Arzest to clean it up and work on weekends - illegally, and getting nothing in return to boot. No idea what to believe on him anymore tbh
I think this is what happened: Naka must've escaped from a Japanese military helicopter flying over a mountainous region of Japan. On board, the crew started hearing a guitar and trumpet playing from nowhere. Next thing they know, they're dropkicked by Naka before he jumps out of the plane. He tore a sheet of metal from the plane and jumped down. After skating down the mountain, he ended up in a park in a small town. He kept running from the Japanese military until the late night, when the military sent out their least most deadly mecha in their arsenal 'Big Hand'. Obviously, Naka took it out with ease. When he looks up, he sees a strange figure standing on the mecha. The stranger was holding a Chaos Emerald, and Naka ran straight at him, only to be surprised by his "speed". A few moments later, he realises it was the power of the Emerald. The stranger proudly proclaims themselves as "Tom Kalinske", before disappearing in a flash. Next thing Naka knows, he's arrested again. Currently, Oshima (even after their feud) is ready to help Naka escape from a prison on an island. This is only the beginning, soon it will be revealed to the world that 50 years ago, Tom Kalinske was created by David Rosen as the ultimate businessman. David Rosen planned to crash a space colony into the planet as revenge for not getting enough attention as a Sega founder. Naka Adventure 2: Hero Side Story Farewell Naka... forever...
Probably they could only hold him for X amount of time, he got out, they arrest him on a second set of charges
I'd believe it, it perfectly matches up with his previously documented behavior. The dude might have a hand in several games I love, but there is no excuse for this prima donna behavior. Guy's a straight up d-bag who's learned absolutely nothing over the years.
This is exactly what I'm concerned about - Naka may well have thrown his weight around at SE with Arzest, not many have came out of Balan looking great in any case. But prior to now I was starting to believe his side of his story and recent defenses on Twitter about all of the old alleged issues re: X-treme, Geist Force, etc, and whatever he has done now doesn't unequivocally mean his conduct in the past is true (though obviously people will have other ideas on this).
As said in the other topic, the internet loves people to hate. Being arrested for insider trading in 2022 doesn't mean he cancelled Sonic X-treme in 1996 - that's not how things work. I'm not sure how much of that "you must work harder" is hyperbole (presumably he couldn't force people to come in on weekends, and it's not like this is an unusual exercise in the games industry), but... well, it's widely accepted Balan Wonderworld wasn't good enough - a couple of months extra development might have helped. If the team isn't hitting milestones, what are you meant to do?
AI Translation of page 1 of the article: (Obviously some small errors but I like this robot better than Google translate, but it seems to be too heavily in use right now to translate another page...) Also going to crosspost what I said in the Balan topic: If they are salaried I don't know what Japan's laws are on overtime, but it would be less than shocking. Crunch isn't exactly a new idea in the industry especially in Japan where the idea of work ethic is classically pretty insane. I could speculate further where this might be an exaggeration/biased but it is an anonymous source that has popped up in the midst of Square Enix trying to cover its butt so I don't really trust it off hand. Don't get me wrong though. We don't live in the 90s where the industry there was Akihabara dweebies struggling to break through. Indies struggling to get a game out the door on minimal dime is one thing but AAA not paying its people overtime is dumb. Still, it is hard to imagine that Naka was the bottleneck for the pay. He had people to answer to and both Azrest and obviously Square Enix, so there are other people who could have said "You know, the deadlines are rough and these people deserve overtime." With that in mind it seems pretty evident that Square Enix wound up not loosening deadlines or demanding more effort (for pay or otherwise) and they released a pile. Moreover they are retaliating on the guy who wanted it to be better.
In regards to why he was arrested again: In Japan, the police can only hold a suspect for 23 days before they must either release him or proceed with prosecution. Therefore, it's common for police to string out a series of charges like this and re-arrest the suspect after the initial 23 days. They probably knew about this other case of insider trading (and perhaps even more), but they are just going to announce them one-by-one so they can keep re-arresting him. That will only end when he has confessed to everything and pleads guilty.
Again, not the worst crime in the world. Not excusing it. But the fact of the obvious retaliation by his former employer is the real scandal, at least as far as I am concerned, being an American. Second, some folks are jumping to a lot of conclusions regarding the overtime thing. You don't know his side of the story. You don't know who all was pulling what strings in the whole endeavor. This whole thing looks like he's being made the scapegoat. And if he was pushing for the "illegal" unpaid overtime... was anyone's job in jeopardy if they refused? THAT'S what's important here, not that he wanted it (IF the claim is even accurate).
I was trying to work out the numbers, and I'm sure there'll be someone better versed in this subject (my employer doesn't "do" overtime. They don't pay us for it, so we go home, so it's not something I've really been exposed to). It looks like Japan passed a law in 2018 to limit the amount of hours "large employers" (more than 50 staff) can make their employees work. I'm reading the limit on overtime is 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, 45 hours a month, 360 hours a year, unless it's "special circumstances" that almost certainly didn't apply here. Arzest is claiming to have 80 employees at present so the law would apply. I'm also not reading anything specific about weekends. And there seems to be plenty of companies not fully complying (although the culture is getting better, apparently). My gut feeling is that this part is a non-story. It sounds to me like "the game isn't good enough, delay it" "no" "okay make them work overtime" "no" "okay you suck" It could be that one of those above limits were being exceeded, but I just... I mean... Dragon Quest's developers used to pull all-nighters - I'm not convinced it's Square Enix growing a heart. It's more likely that the Arzest developers fell out with Naka and are airing their dirty laundry. Arzest's track record with making games isn't "excellent". It's not "bad"... but it isn't excellent. I can't speak for Prope, but Sonic Team under Yuji Naka made some pretty damn good video games - there is a relatively clear divide in standards. And yes I know we can do the whole "Sonic Heroes wasn't excellent" thing - broadly Sonic Team's 90s and early 2000s output is a step above what Azest (and Artoon) have produced.
If this is all just Square Enix retaliating against Naka over the lawsuit, I wonder what the deal is with the other two former employees who were also arrested.
If they were just collateral damage as others were thinking then nothing further would happen to them.
