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08.04.2024 - 09:31 / gameranx.com / Square Enix / Takashi Kiryu / Yoko Taro / Yosuke Saito
Yuji Naka has resurfaced on Twitter, with a spicy message to start off our week.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Naka has accused Yuu Miyake of lying about him in court. To quote Video Games Chronicle’s translation of his statement:
“Finally. I was hoping he would be gone soon because he is the kind of person who would submit a note with a lie (with evidence) to a court of law. I have never met him, but the new [Square Enix] president might be a good person.”
Yuu Miyake had been working on the Dragon Quest franchise since 1992. We reported that he was recently removed from being the person in charge of the franchise, because of delays in making Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate. Video Games Chronicle reports that Yuu has been moved to be in charge of the mobile games division. In spite of Naka’s sentiments, this could be perceived as a promotion.
Yuji Naka, at one time himself the steward of a major video game franchise in Sonic the Hedgehog, joined Square Enix to produce Balan Wonderworld. While Balan Wonderworld flopped with critics and fans, Naka’s tenure in the company is now infamous. After a whistleblower outed him for insider trading, Naka was convicted, and sentenced to 30 months in prison, with a four year suspension, and fined the equivalent of $ 1.2 million.
As reported by Takashi Mochizuki on Bloomberg, Miyake’s move between divisions is part of a broader reorganization within Square Enix. Square’s current president, Takashi Kiryu, has sold this move to investors as a push to rely less on external developers and do more of their work in-house. So far, investors have been positive to the move.
Mochizuki also reports that Yosuke Saito, who works closely with Yoko Taro on Nier and other projects, is highly favored to take over the position as head of Dragon Quest.
We had reported Yuji Naka’s case through the years, and it’s worth pointing out that he did write a confession stating, in translation:
“There is no doubt that I knew the facts about the game before it was made public and bought the stock.”
So if Naka is not disputing his earlier confession, he seems to still be claiming some injustice to the extent that he had been prosecuted on. But not all of the details of his court case carried over to the West, so there may be something else that we don’t know about, but has embarrassed him over in his native Japan.
In any case, if Naka feels confident about talking about the very case again in the middle of his suspended sentence, we may hear even more sordid details in the near future.
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If you were concerned that the PS5-exclusive Stellar Blade, out 26th April on PS5, might run afoul of Sony's censors, fear not. Developer ShiftUp is advertising that the game will remain entirely uncensored in all regions, including Japan.
Square Enix has formally unveiled a moogle-themed board game based off of characters from the acclaimed PS2 title Final Fantasy 12. This certainly isn't thebombastic Final Fantasy 12 remake announcement some fans may have been hoping for. However, it's at least a nice reminder that Square Enix hasn't entirely forgotten about the world of Ivalice and the games that take place within it.
Stellar Blade developer Shift Up quite clearly took a lot of inspiration from PS4 great NieR: Automata during the making of its soon-to-be-released PS5 exclusive, but in the case of Automata director Yoko Taro, he thinks that the student has already become the master. In an interview with IGN Japan (via Eurogamer), Taro says Stellar Blade «is a really amazing game. I'd say that it's much better than NieR: Automata.»
Octopath Traveler was abruptly delisted from the Nintendo Switch eShop last month, though amid confusing surrounding why the RPG was no longer available for digital purchase on the system, Square Enix provided assurances that the delisting was only temporary.
Stellar Blade is better than NieR: Automata, according to the latter's esteemed director Yoko Taro.
Japanese clothing store Uniqlo has announced a new range of officially licensed t-shirts based on some of the more currently popular Final Fantasy titles.
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Despite releasing to universal acclaim from both fans and critics, it appears that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth may have failed to perform well sales-wise, according to a notable industry analyst. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth potentially underperforming may bring into question the popularity of the franchise as a whole.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth enjoyed widespread critical acclaim upon its launch earlier in the year on a level that no game in the series has in a long, long time- though it seems that critical acclaim isn’t quite translating to commercial success in the manner that Square Enix would have hoped for.
Following the release of the Ultimania compilation for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, game producer Yoshinori Kitase stated that the development of the highly anticipated third entry in the series could lead to a shorter release window. Kitase said that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was developed in three years following Final Fantasy 7 Remake's Intermission DLC thanks to the retention of team members, which led to an efficient development period that he hopes to continue into Part 3.
Hikaru Utada recently recorded a new version of the legendary Kingdom Hearts theme song “Hikari” as part of her latest album. While she was already a prolific pop singer, songwriter, and producer in Japan, Utada is likely most well-known around the world for her work on the Kingdom Hearts series, in which she wrote and performed the theme songs for the main three entries.