Sonic Co-Creator Yuji Naka Found Guilty Of Insider Trading

It’s a suspended sentence. He’s not going to prison unless he violates the terms.

White collar crimes always pay.

sigh What a waste...

I wonder what his thoughts is on Naoto Ohshima returning to handle Sonic Superstars at Sega.

what on earth is this man doing

He should run for Congress in the U.S. At the most he’d get a $200 fine.

He is a prisoner, prisoner... 🎵🎶
(Prisoner by Miley Cyrus & Dua Lipa)

He is not going to some prison where he will be eaten alive. At most will get the comfiest prison possible like the other inside trade violators.

Why am I laughing. This isn’t funny 😭

He should be jailed for crimes against video games.

Insider trading is one of those things that is definitely illegal but almost never prosecuted. Half of the American congress leave office with their wealth increased by an order of magnitude just because there’s no laws against insider trading for them.

@bonjong23 hence the word "probation"

Balen didn’t go so well huh?

(I know it’s been joked to death I just wanted to make one more)

If only he could show just as much remorse to everybody he threw under the bus or was generally a jerk to during his time as a developer. The man has done a lot for gaming, but I do not feel the least bit sorry for him.

@Maulbert if such a thing earned jailtime, the penitentiary systems worldwide would collapse trying to "house" all the fandoms out there.

I pretty much lost all respect for him at this point. I used to admire him back in the day...kinda sad if you think about.

I still enjoy some of the games he had worked on, such as NiGHTS into Dreams & Phantasy Star Online.

Jail time for releasing balan wonderworld upon the earth.

Shoulda seen this coming when he tried to steal some of Mario's magic backin the 90s. So this is what SEGA does that Nintendon't lol.

(just a joke SEGA fans.)

RIP any chance of him getting back into game development
You will not be missed in the studios

@bonjong23 he’s going 2 1/2 years in jail, and then the 4 years of probation.

Well, can’t say we’ll miss the guy. But I bet he will be talked about in the coming months…

“For showing "remorse"” “ must pay both fines, adding up to 173 million yen in total” 🤔

Can you see all of me?
Walk into my mystery
Step inside and hold on for dear life
Do you remember me?
Capture you or set you free
I am all, I am all of me

@Savage_Joe That’s incorrect. He was served a suspended sentence. Look at the original Japanese.

I'm confused. What's wrong with buying and selling stock?

Dang! How do you go from making a video game series that managed to compete with Mario back in the 90’s to this?!?
This guys career is just flat out obliterated.

@CutchuSlow When it's your company and you know the stock is going to go up when you announce something, then selling at massive profit is illegal. If he got someone else to do it for him, which I'm sure a lot of people did, then it would have been fine. (Edit - that last sentence was sarcasm, but I bet some people did it, just not using their own name)

@Bunkerneath Just to be clear... it's not OK to get someone else to do it for you. It's harder to prove you are guilty, but certainly not OK.

Wealthy, privileged people in wealthy and privileged jobs greedily steeling money from other investors. That's exactly what this is.

He should spend time behind bars for this crime. A fine isn't enough.

@Maulbert And everyone who bought Ballan wonderdorld or any Sonic game should be prosecuted for enabling him.

@CutchuSlow Also for clarification, people do this constantly despite it being illegal. I'm the US it's basically standard practice, just hard to prove.

@Cashews No kidding, really these may just be the only time he got caught.

@nocdaes I know I was being sarcastic, but also bet you some people did it...

He must be exhausted after of all of this. Proper Naka’d

@Rhaoulos The man jumped ship during development of Sonic 06, took Sonic Team staff with him, and didn't stick around to finish the project through. Seeing how that was 17 years ago, people who have supported Sonic for the second half of the hedgehog's career aren't to blame here.

@imadeanaccount The Japanese courts wanted to make an example out of him for insider trading, a crime they've tried to step up on recently with prosecutions and to change the in country perception of insider trading. This wasn't a case of Naka only doing insider trading, it was the courts going after the cases on the higher profile individuals and Naka happened to be one of them.

Suspended sentence - slap on the wrist.

I've seen The Simpsons, he could just walk right through those paper jail walls if he was sent there

Yuji Naka should quit game development and become a politician

Hopefully this keeps him out of the game industry.

@westman98 Yeah he's got the lying and taking credit for other peoples work down for decades. Now he's got the greed and fraud down pat too.

@TheBigK It has been proven locking people up does't do anything.

Absolute conman

For all his character flaws, I'm glad Naka-san isn't going to prison. There are far worse people than him walking free.

What's do bad with "insider" trading? Do we really want share buying to be a gamble? And not something done with the best information? People in general should not buy shares unless they have some special knowledge that other people are unlikely to have. Otherwise it turns into a game.

There should be much harsher penalties for white collar crime, such as insider trading. It's ridiculous that theif A who robs 50 bucks from a convenience store gets treated worse than theif B who embezzles millions, thus affecting multiple individuals. White collar crime, and the special treatment high-status people receive, is the true dredge of modern society. Naka deserved a much harsher sentence. "Tough on crime", my ass.

Naka must have a good lawyer to convince of the judge of remorse for insider trading. Insider trading is not an accident or a case of poverty crime, Naka should have been sentenced to prison with no suspension.

Nintendo Life should have just kept using that photo of him in Balan’s top hat for every serious article about him.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes

The prison conversation from the movie "Office Space" was looping through my head reading this article.

Will it be "white collar minimum security resort" or "federal pound-me-in-the-A prison"?

He should have been sent to prison for Balan Wonderland

Good. I am not happy with anything Sonic related after the DLC fiasco on their latest release. They are crooks.

I actually legitimately love Balan Wonderworld. Just saying. shrug

(And of course, the early Sonic games are some of the best)
((... I also like Rodea...))
(((also NiGHTS! don't forget NiGHTS!!)))

stop doing bad money stuff, Naka, we need you out here making games!

A £1m fine and a suspended sentence seems appropriate for something that doesn't appear to have had any sever repercussions. The fine seems more appropriate than housing him in prison.

@Mortenb you buy and sell share knowing full well that the price can rise and fall and that they can get a negative return. It's in the terms and conditions when you sign up, and is also in any publicity. It is essentially a form of gambling, and hence why children cannot buy them without any adult representation.

Gotta go fast... I guess not quite fast enough.