Sonic co-creator Yuji Naka accuses Square Enix producer of lying in court 

After being silent for over a year, former Square Enix and Sega developer Yuji Naka updated his personal X (formerly Twitter) account on April 7. Unexpectedly, Naka addressed the recent news of Square Enix’s Yu Miyake leaving his role of Dragon Quest series producer and accused him of submitting falsehoods in court. 

Yuji Naka, known as the co-creator of the Sonic series, was found guilty of insider trading at Square Enix in 2023. He was given a suspended sentence of two and half years in prison and fined for approx. $1.2 million USD. Naka had reportedly purchased shares in Aiming, the developer of Dragon Quest Tact, and ATeam, the developer of Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier, based on confidential knowledge. 

In his recent tweet, Naka shared an article about Miyake stepping down from his role as Dragon Quest series producer and captioned it, “Finally. I was hoping he would be gone soon, as he’s the kind of person that would submit a note containing lies in a trial (there is evidence of this). I haven’t met the new CEO, but he might be a good person.” 

Last week, it was reported by Bloomberg that Miyake, the veteran producer who had led the Dragon Quest series since 1992, would be relocated to Square Enix’s mobile game development department. This was apparently the result of delays in Dragon Quest 12’s development. According to Bloomberg, the top candidate to replace Miyake is NieR series producer Yosuke Saito. 

In his post, Naka seemingly applauds the decision, offering praise to Square Enix’s CEO Takashi Kiryu, who was freshly appointed in June last year and announced various changes in the company’s policy and organization. The accusation Naka makes towards Miyake is ambiguous, but may refer to last year’s insider trading trial. It might be important to note that during his first trial at the Tokyo District Court, Naka had admitted to leveraging his position at Square Enix to engage in insider trading of 130,000 stocks.