Yoko Taro wants people to know he didn’t pay for his blue checkmark on X 

Ever since Elon Musk purchased Twitter back in April 14, 2022, the social media website has gone through a bunch of questionable changes. There was the rebranding to the current name “X” and with it a logo that could mean pretty much anything. Account bans and reinstatements were also abundant, further distancing the website from what it used to be. One of the most debated changes to X was its new blue checkmark system, which previously helped official accounts of well-known brands and people stand out from imposters.  

Nowadays, the blue checkmark serves as a brand of sorts that signifies a person has opted for X Premium – a three-tier paid subscription service that reduces the number of ads, allows the user to edit posts, gives them potential ad revenue, and a slew of other features that arguably should be made available to all platform users. However, there have been reports of influential accounts getting blue checkmarks without them opting into the service. Mark Hamill – best known for his portrayal of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars – is one such person who openly said he had nothing to do with his blue checkmark. In the gaming industry, developers such as Undertale and Deltarune creator Toby Fox have also been given blue checkmarks without their consent. 

To add to this growing list of game developers with blue checkmarks, Japanese game director and scenario writer Yoko Taro was quick to tell the world that he recently received access to X Premium+ (the highest tier of X Premium available) and was given a blue checkmark of his own. On April 4, 2024, the Drakengard and Nier series creator announced that the “unsolicited authentication problem” had also affected him. In a follow-up post, Yoko Taro elaborates that the service was already implemented without his purchase, knowledge, or consent. Continuing his penchant for tongue-in-cheek comments, Yoko Taro goes on to say that he has yet to receive any ad revenue for using the service. 

Yoko Taro’s free X Premium+ subscription came soon after a March 28, 2024 post by Elon Musk stating that all X accounts with over 5,000 verified subscriber followers would receive X Premium+ for free. Considering Yoko Taro has 337,800 followers on X, a good number of these people must have contributed to his free subscription. One can only hope that, should Yoko Taro ever receive compensation for his posts, then that money would go to funding his future projects.